The Daily Ocean – A 365-Day Project to Collect Trash From The Beach

A friend gave me a link to this blog TheDailyOcean.blogspot.com; written by Santa Monica resident Sara Bayles, her plan is to spend 20 minutes collecting trash from her local beach each day and record her efforts online for 365 non-consecutive days. At each visit, she takes a photograph of what the beach looked like that day, a photo of the trash she collected, and she also includes a photo of something beautiful.

She keeps a running tally of each day’s collection: So far, only 70 days into her project, she estimates she has collected more than 325 pounds of trash. Sara says her goal is to raise awareness, and add some inspiration to help change the world.

Sara started the project back in May and since then, has blogged her nearly daily efforts to clean up beach trash, 20 minutes at a time. Sometimes she goes alone, sometimes she collects with her husband Garen, but just this weekend she collected trash as part of 350.org’s  “Day for International Climate Action” in a giant beach cleanup project co-hosted with GreenLaGirl Siel,

Sara says her inspiration for this project came when she “realized I could treat everyday like a beach clean-up day, instead of waiting for an organization like Surfrider to host one.” She does belong to Surfrider, and says she believes membership in organizations like theirs is important, but ever since she moved closer to the beach, she “decided to do something to help protect our oceans as often as I could.”

Her collection of photos is amazing, documenting the assortment of garbage she picks up at each outing. Some of it is as ordinary as those single-use plastic drinking bottles and their caps, paper cups and straws, and cigarette butts. She also finds an abundance of clothing and shoes, toys and balloons, and candy and food wrappers. Hiding in between the “typical” trash, she also collects disgusting things like used condoms and tampons, animal feces, and even hypodermic syringes, all of it documented in her daily journals.

Along with her photos, Sara also shares educational information about the items she picks up with factoids like “Americans use over 50 million plastic water bottles a year, which take 700 years before they start decomposing.” She helps teach why specific items (like plastic bottle caps) are especially bad for the environment or wildlife (because seagulls eat them and choke), so while her commentary is moving, it’s also quite educational about a variety of environmental topics.

Sara says it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the reports we read about how the environment — and especially our marine environments — are suffering as a result of human activity. These reports still frighten Sara, but, she says “I know that every time I drive down to Ocean Park, and collect beach trash for 20 minutes, I feel better. At least, what I collected stayed out of the water for that day.”

Sara also invites others to share in her project through “The Daily Ocean’s Community Count.” Even if you can’t join Sarah in Santa Monica, she invites you to take 20 minutes on any beach near you to collect trash, weigh it, take pictures of what you see and find, and then send them to her thedailyocean@yahoo.com with your feedback. She will post the fruits of your efforts at her site along with her own.

Check out Sara’s blog and send her a note of support to let her know that what she is doing makes a difference. And why not spend a little time today picking up some trash, wherever you happen to be? Even if you’re not at the beach, you can make a difference too!

Tags: beaches, environment, Motivational, Sustainability and Responsible Use, trash