An ocean sample- look at all that gunk!

Today, we received a ‘sick’ new hands-on piece to augment our Watershed Protection Presentations. When you look at the picture below, what do you see? Before scenes of snowglobes flash through your mind’s default state, look closer. Those white specks are not falling snowflakes, but organic materials. But is that it? Along with plankton and other invertebrates, you can see plastic. One of these things is not like the other. What is plastic doing alongside plankton, and a better question is why do I feel the need to tell you about this? This latest addition to our educational resources is a sample from our oceans, specifically the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, plastic and all.

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

I first heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2003 in Mr. Dorr’s APES class. Since my discovery, I have become more interested in the topic and finally in 2013, I feel comfortable enough with the subject to introduce the problem to others. The problem is that our oceans are inundated with trash. While many varieties of trash enter our oceans each second, minute, day, year, plastics are what are sticking. Mr. McGuire was right, plastics are the future. They are the future of our oceans. The reason that plastics have developed into such a big problem is that they do not biodegrade, like organic material, they photodegrade. Like the name suggests, plastics breakdown [degrade] by sunlight [photo]. This is not a chemical change but a physical one; they do not disappear, they simply become smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.

These plastics are considered microplastics, a mere 5mm in diameter. Their accumulation creates a ‘plastic soup’, which comprises the Pacific Garbage Patch. Yum. This is a recipe for disaster, as our sea creatures have not adapted to our trash in their habitats. Often times animals will ingest trash when instead of food. I mean, can you differentiate between plastic and plankton in that jar?

While this seems dark and stormy, there is a solution! It starts with education. I Love A Clean San Diego talks about these issues and more in our Watershed Protection presentations. For more information about our programs, shoot me an email at ebjorkquist@cleansd.org.

“Salt in the air, sand in my hair”, that defines my summer in San Diego! What better way is there than spending your time by the beaches and bays? One of my favorite things to do during the warm weathered months is going boating! The mist of salt water and the adrenaline from the boat speed is always bound to be a good time. Boating is a great recreational activity but it’s important to remember that boating can pollute our waters. So here are a few tips on how to be a responsible boater this summer:

Toes to the nose

1.       Remember to be green!

Something as simple as bringing a reusable water bottle can make a difference! Why? Empty plastic bottles can easily and accidentally fly out and end up in the water. This goes for all trash. Make sure to keep your trash sealed away!

 2.       Plan out your boat route!

Whether you’re on Mission Bay or the ocean, try just anchoring your boat for a few hours, not only is it saving your fuel, it’s less pollution that goes into the water. Also, make sure to watch out for shallow areas to avoid getting stuck but also avoiding damage to habitats.

Keeping the bay beautiful

 3.       Avoid fuel spills!

When filling your tank, fill slowly and leave 10% empty. The fuel will expand as it warms up. When boaters do this properly, animal lives are saved!

 4.       Say no to hitchhikers!

Once on land, drain the water out of every part of the boat and engine. This avoids the spread of invasive species. After boating ANYWHERE, always clean your boat DRY before going into water again.

5.       Switch up your “after boating” cleaning supplies!

No boat owner likes a dirty boat but try using eco-friendly cleaning supplies! It gets the job done and it is not harsh on the environment.

6.       Make sure to recycle your boat waste properly!

Boat oil, paint, batteries, and cleaning products need to be disposed of properly! Not sure exactly where? Try ILACSD’s hotline! 1-877-R-1-Earth or visit www.WasteFreeSD.org

Today’s blog post comes from ILACSD’s Director of Development & Marketing, and beach lover, Morgan Justice-Black.

Were you one of the many who braved the traffic and parking struggles to hit the beach over Memorial Day weekend? Well, if you happened to be along Mission Bay, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach, you probably saw these big cardboard bins on the sand.

Memorial Day at Belmont Shores, before…

I Love A Clean San Diego and FreePB.org worked together again this year to order hundreds of temporary trash and recycle bins for the big beach holidays over the summer. This year is the first year that we were able to place the bins in time for Memorial Day weekend, and man were they popular!

Memorial Day at Belmont Shores- after!

The City of San Diego Parks & Recreation Department provides major help in this endeavor, both placing the bins and removing them, and hauling all of the trash to the landfill. They also calculate how many tons of debris the bins collected. Thanks to the efforts of these bins, we avoid handing out beachside next to images like this… 

To make sure that these bins are durable enough to stand up to the crowds (and the sometimes inclement weather), the bins are double-walled for strength. The cost for these bins certainly adds up. Thankfully this year, we had great support from Think Blue San Diego, Pacific Beach Shore Club, Typhoon Saloon, car2go, SeaWorld and many other sponsors who are recognized on the bins.

If your Fourth of July plans involve a little beach action in PB, MB or OB, make sure you tell your friends that the bins are out there for you to use. As the Clean Beach Coalition motto states, Enjoy the Scene, But Keep it Clean!

Kids’ Ocean Day is just around the corner, only 1 week away! This is a BIG event; almost 1,000 San Diego Unified Elementary school students from 7 title-one schools will come out to the beach to participate in a cleanup and be part of an aerial art formation.   Although I Love A Clean San Diego has been participating in Kids Ocean Day for the last 15 years, this is my first Kids Ocean Day and I couldn’t be more excited…and nervous.  If you would like to be a part of this one-of-a-kind event, adult volunteers are needed from 8am-12pm. Please contact Lexi Ambrogi at lambrogi@cleansd.org.

A sketch of this year’s aerial art

What is aerial art? Good question! It is art that you can see from the sky! Participants gather to create a message of conservation, which will be captured by Out of the Lens photographer, Niki, in a helicopter.  To help us out on this big day we’ll have more than 100 amazing volunteers, including teachers and parents. So how exactly do we get the image on the ground? The ILACSD Aerial Art Team will be arriving very early in the morning to outline the design of the aerial art. This part is crucial; we have to make sure everything is measured out precisely so that our design comes out as planned.  Communication and attention to detail are key, after all, it takes a lot of hands to turn a 8.5”x11” drawing into a 170’x300’ aerial art piece. After the cleanup, the students will form part of the aerial art. Once everyone is in place, a helicopter will fly overhead and Niki will take photographs from a bird’s eye view. Since we can’t see what the design looks like from the ground, we have to trust that we measured everything correctly and that our design came out well. This is the moment we are looking forward to with most anticipation! Fortunately, we have a few Kids’ Ocean Day veterans on our aerial art team who have years of experience. As you can see from the pictures, I Love A Clean San Diego has done a great job with previous aerial art design and event execution, and although we do have a very daunting task ahead of us, we are positive this year’s Kids’ Ocean Day will be a success!

Every year, Kids’ Ocean Day sends a new message that’s all about protecting and conserving our Oceans. The message this year is “Listen”. What’s so great about this message is that it is from the kids, and it can be interpreted in different ways. What does it mean to you?

This year’s design is child holding a shell to her ear and the word “Listen”. The kid with the shell is a bit of change from previous years when we’ve had marine animals be our aerial art piece. That’s why this year’s is unique and special. In previous years we’ve had an Octopus, a Mako Shark, a California Least Tern, A Sea Turtle, A Bottlenose Dolphin, a Gray Whale, and a snail. All of these are important animal species that inhabit our local marine habitats.

Our 2012 aerial art sketch turns into…

A real-life image made up of almost 1,000 kids!

Why do this? Why do we arrive at the beach at 5 in the morning and bring hundreds of students and adults to form a child and shell in the sand? Partly because the aerial art looks really cool. All those little dots in the picture are actually people, forming a huge image, it’s not something you do every day. We hope the children experience this as well. They get to come to the beach on a school day, actively help the environment by participating in a beach cleanup, and be a part of this cool picture that they can have forever. The most important part is that they are giving the message of “Listen”; telling the world we have to listen to the ocean and help.

When a tire is illegally dumped in a canyon or even on the side of the road, it can release chemicals as it breaks down that present a fire risk. With our dry Southern California climate this can be extremely dangerous. Also a tire that is abandoned can hold water, which can create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease carrying pests. To avoid these issues, take your tires to the proper place for recycling. Tires can most often be taken to a tire retail store, with a nominal fee. Your local jurisdictions will sometimes hold free collection events where you can drop off your waste tires for recycling with no charge, check with your jurisdiction or visit WasteFreeSD.org to see if there’s an event near you.

Tires collected for recycling

Electronic waste (or e-waste) contains heavy metals; these heavy metals are exposed to us as electronics that are illegally dumped begin to break down. Exposure to heavy metals can have detrimental effects to our health; reduced growth and development, cancer, organ damage and nervous system damage can occur due to exposure to heavy metals. E-waste can easily be disposed of for free at an e-waste collection event or at a household hazardous waste collection facility. There are also recycling centers located in San Diego that accept e-waste during their regular business hours, but fees may apply so be sure to call ahead to make sure you’re well informed.

Harsh chemicals are the solvents used in oil based paint; the main solvent used in latex based paint is water. Latex based paint is less harmful to the environment and your health than oil-based paint, and should be used as a substitute whenever possible.  However if either type of paint is poured down a storm drain or sewer system, they have the potential to pollute our groundwater, rivers, and streams. Latex based paint can now be disposed of at many local paint stores that are now participating in a state wide program called Paint Care. There a few conditions the paint must meet in order to be disposed of through the Paint Care program, check out WasteFreeSD.org for more information. Oil based paint, as well as latex based paint, can be disposed of for free at a household hazardous waste collection facility. The site you can utilize is based on where you live, so be sure to locate your assigned site on WasteFreeSD.org.

Just one gallon of motor oil can pollute one million gallons of water or an acre of soil an inch deep.  Motor oil is toxic to animals and humans if ingested, and it can coat the body of aquatic animals and birds. Motor oil can be conveniently be disposed of at many different auto part stores, without a charge and upon request you can even receive money back! Certified Used Oil Collection Centers will take used motor oil from the public and will pay you 40¢ a gallon, find one by visiting WasteFreeSD.org. (However if your motor oil is contaminated with any other substances, such as water, it would need to go to a household hazardous waste collection facility).

Log on to www.WasteFreeSD.org or call our bilingual recycling hotline at 1-800-237-BLUE to find a recycling center or disposal site near you. We thank you in advance for doing your part to preserve our local environment!

Photos by youth from Outside the Lens

Niki Even has worked for Outside the Lens for the last 6 years, first as the lead media educator and now as the program director.  Her favorite part of each day is the ability to share the power of digital media to youth throughout San Diego County.   She is thrilled to continue the partnership with I Love A Clean San Diego during Kids’ Ocean Day, combining her love for photography and her passion for education regarding important community topics.

Outside the Lens empowers youth to use digital media to create change within themselves, their community and their world. Their year-long outreach programs include a curriculum component called Water in Focus.  Here, students participate in a global photography project that calls them to action as they document the use, waste, conservation, and pollution of water through words and images.  I Love a Clean San Diego has participated in visiting Outside the Lens’ classrooms as guest speakers and partnered on community water events with Outside the Lens students.

Niki says, “[i]t’s always exciting to watch our students make a positive change in their personal habits or help create community change based on the images they took and the opportunity to see their world through a new lens, the lens of the camera.”

We are so excited to work with OTL once more and look forward to seeing the captured image.

For years, the influx of beachgoers had been synonymous with an increase in litter, as the existing trash cans at beaches tend to fill up very quickly. But I Love A Clean San Diego is leading the charge in reversing this trend with an innovative program called the Clean Beach Coalition.

The Clean Beach Coalition is a joint effort between non-profits, community groups and local government agencies to prevent litter and pollution from our San Diego beaches. We work closely with the City of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department, Free PB, and several local businesses to bring this summertime program to our beaches. You may recognize this cardboard bin [see attached photo of bin]—we place 200 of them at the most popular city beaches over the summer holiday weekends to ensure that beachgoers will have access to trash and recycling receptacles.

Enjoy your bash but can your trash!

How effective is this program? Last year, these bins collected more than 84,000 pounds of trash and recyclables that may have otherwise ended up as litter on our shoreline. And over the last 3 years, we’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of trash collected from Mission Beach at our yearly July 5^th cleanup, the Morning After Mess. At the 2012 event, our volunteers found nearly a 50% decrease in litter from just 2 years earlier!

In fact, we’re so excited about the impact of the Clean Beach Coalition that we’re going to kick off this program one holiday earlier in 2013. In addition to placing 100 bins at beaches on July 4 and 50 over Labor Day weekend, we’ll have another 50 trash and recycling bins out at your favorite beach hangouts over Memorial Day Weekend! Look for them at Mission Bay, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.

We’d love to see this program in action, so we’re giving away 10 Rubio’s gift cards to the first 10 people to send us photos of our Clean Beach Coalition bins on the beaches! Snap a photo of the bin in use and email it to iloveacleansd@gmail.com.

Want to get involved? We’re looking for a handful of dedicated volunteers to help us assemble these temporary bins on Thursday, May 23. Contact Lexi at lambrogi@cleansd.org or (619)-704-2778 to sign up.

Help us spread the word about preventing litter at the beach this summer. Need a catchphrase? Try this one: enjoy the scene, but keep it clean!

Today’s blog post comes from Nicole McAleer, our newest environmental educator.

I recently joined the I Love A Clean San Diego team as an Environmental Educator. I am really enthusiastic about environmental education and, through ILACSD, I am able to bring my passion and energy to schools all over San Diego County. I have a lovely mobile classroom equipped with high tech gear and cool props to help me present information about watersheds and storm drain pollution to school group of all ages. The students really enjoy taking part in hands-on learning activities like “Sum of Parts”, where they see how a piece of trash can travel through a watershed to the ocean. It gets the kids all riled up to see how misplaced trash can alter their beach experience. I also encourage each student to get involved in preserving the environment through incorporation of the “3 R’s” in their daily lives and participation in I Love A Clean San Diego’s cleanup events. Students have the opportunity to sign up to become more involved in cleanup events on the spot. The students are always directed to the cleanup site closest to their school. More than once students were unaware that there was a waterway or canyon so close that needed their help! I’m always impressed that kids want to get involved and are willing to make simple changes in their daily lives to protect and preserve the environment. Having such strong and dedicated a volunteer base is what has enable ILACSD to remove about 500,000 of trash from San Diego beaches and inland waterways annually.

Prior to working at I Love A Clean San Diego, I earned my Masters of Arts in Teaching and have worked as a Nature and Environmental Educator. I am an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for the environment and belief in service to her community.

Here’s Nicole acting as a site captain for Coastal Cleanup Day

In my free time I enjoy spending time being active outdoors. I love hiking, biking, kayaking swimming, running and walking my two dogs (I always remember to scoop the poop). I also love the beach! My love of the outdoors and appreciation of plants and wildlife is part of my inspiration to educate future generations about the importance of protecting the environment. I have learned a lot of new information while working at ILACSD. I was shocked to see that litter in the form of small cigarette butts has such a large impact on water quality in addition to the high quantities they are always found at each clean up event. I stay current on what is going on in the local community through participation in professional development and recently participated in water quality monitoring with Coastkeepers and attended workshops hosted by the Children in Nature Collaborative.  I plan to continue learning new techniques that will inspire kids to embrace their natural surroundings.

I am proud to be part of the I Love A Clean San Diego family and hope to see you at a cleanup or presentation soon!

This year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup was a huge success thanks to all of our hard working staff, interns and volunteers! We’ve all had time to exchange stories and reflect on our experiences, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my experience with all of you. This was not only my first Creek to Bay, but my first ever event with I Love A Clean San Diego, so I was excited and a bit nervous as I served as a site captain for Carroll Canyon.

Upon arrival, I noticed how steep the descent to the actual canyon was and felt a bit intimidated knowing I was about to lead groups of students and cub scouts down the treacherous hill through mounds of poison oak. Some of the volunteers blew me away with their incredible enthusiasm and dedication. For example, one man who was volunteering with John Deer Water, showed up at 8:30, which was half an hour before the event even began, grabbed a trash bag and headed down the canyon straight away. He told me this was his third cleanup, and a well-seasoned veteran wastes no time waiting for others. Throughout the duration of the event he made 4 complete trips into the abyss and back with two full black bags of trash each time. Everyone was supremely impressed with his dedication and persistence.

Volunteers in canyons are an essential part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup

Trekking alongside the creek that runs through the canyon, we were all very surprised to find such a large amount of debris. There isn’t much surrounding the area so it was odd to find so many beer cans, clothing, plastic bins, and Red Box sleeves. How exactly do you watch DVDs in a canyon anyway? At one point, two Cub Scouts were seen in the distance lugging a giant rusted tent and canopy up the steep hill, we all ran to their aid but they refused help because they wanted to be able to say they hauled it all the way to the top themselves. The boys won our competition to see who could collect the most garbage. They were thrilled to receive free passes to the Birch Aquarium. After all of the Carroll Canyon volunteers battled their way through the terrain for three hours, we all felt a little more connected to each other and a little scared we had all contracted poison oak.

After everyone had parted ways, I couldn’t help but feel so proud of our community for giving up so much time to come hang out with me and help make San Diego a bit cleaner, healthier and more beautiful. I look forward to working I Love A Clean San Diego’s future events, and we all hope to see YOU there as well!

For the second year in a row, I Love A Clean San Diego has teamed up with Sony Electronics to host a Creek to Bay photo contest. We asked volunteers at this year’s cleanup to best capture the “spirit of service” and send a photo to be entered into our contest. We received a ton of wonderful photos, so it was hard to narrow it down, but we did! We are so lucky to have such hardworking and enthusiastic volunteers!  Our top 5 entries have been posted on our Facebook page and it’s up to you to decide who the winner is! All you need to do is ‘Like’ our page and vote for your favorite photo by liking it, it’s as simple as that! Voting is open until Thursday, May 9^th and the winner will be announced Friday, May 10^th.  This year’s winner will be receiving a new Sony Cyber-shot camera!

Take a look at our Top 5 photos from this year’s contest (in no particular order):

The Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve sure looks a lot cleaner thanks to the help of this young lady!

Working hard or hardly working? These guys show how fun volunteering can be; you never know what you’ll find!

This Girl Scout Troop had a very successful time cleaning up La Jolla Shores! Check out all of that trash! Impressive job!

This 12 year old Boy Scout is saving marine wildlife one piece of trash at a time! Way to go!

These volunteers show what team work looks like at the Chollas Earthlab site!