Local Earth Day 2022 beach cleanup sets records

2,100 pounds of debris removed

This was our first year loaning out 

wood-framed sand sieves, which were 

popular with families with small children 

for recovering microplastic debris.

On April 23, in honor of Earth Day, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center held our biggest beach cleanup ever, setting several records. Our sponsors included the Port Townsend Food Co-Op, Olympic Disposal, and the Washington State Department of Ecology, which provided funding.
The afternoon was sunny and cool. At 1 p.m., 134 volunteers began arriving. They continued to show up throughout the day, full of enthusiasm, with some joining the effort just an hour before our 5 p.m. wrap-up. Some people could only spare an hour; others spent the entire afternoon walking the beaches, crawling over rocks, and scrambling up and down banks.

They came singly and in teams, including children and senior citizens, high school and college students, families with toddlers, and groups from civic organizations. We loaned out work gloves, bags, and pickup sticks. This year we included mesh sand sieves for the first time, which allowed volunteers to isolate microplastics—an activity especially popular with families including young children. 

In the past, cleanup registration has been at Fort Worden State Park, and volunteers have been sent to a couple of spots in Port Townsend. For Earth Day 2022, people spread out over five official cleanup sites, each with its own registration station, located at:

• 

  Everyone returned with interesting items and a smile.
  Who knew picking up trash could be such a delightful task.

  Cape George Colony Beach
• Fort Worden State Park
• Downtown Port Townsend
• Indian Island County Park
• Shine Tidelands State Park

In addition:

• The Jefferson County Trash Task Force cleaned up Flagler Road along the entire length of Indian Island.
• A group of homeowners hauled in debris from their private beaches on the far side of the Hood Canal Bridge.
• Two teams scoured several miles of beach in the remote locations of the southern tip of Marrowstone Island and at Hood Head.
• Volunteers brought in debris from an unofficial cleanup at North Beach.

All this activity made for a grand total of 10 areas cleaned up.

What Did We Find? What Didn’t We Find!?

I arrived for my afternoon shift prepared to help volunteers weigh their hauls and sort their items for recycling, reuse or the dumpster. There were only a few bags and loose items piled in one corner of the gargantuan dumpster at 2 p.m.

Soon people began arriving and dumping out their reusable trash bags. We used a luggage scale and found most loads in the range of 1.5 to 5 pounds.

I didn’t think we’d be able to fill up the gargantuan
dumpster in a mere four hours, but I was wrong!

Then the first big load arrived, 125 pounds of debris from North Beach, brought to us in the back of an SUV because it didn’t fit into the cans provided there. Then a pickup truck arrived, and then another, both brimming over with several hundred pounds of debris. Word came that two more trucks were expected. In between unloading the trucks, more volunteers arrived with their reusable trash bags.

They dragged back everything from microplastics and aluminum cans to old tires, lost traffic cones and wayward construction materials. An entire fiberglass dinghy, rolled up carpet remnants and throw rugs, a three-legged plastic chair and PVC pipes of all sizes ended up in the dumpster. In went hoses, golf balls, scraps of fishing gear, buckets, shattered ceramic dishes, tile, plastic food wrappers, pieces of foam and many lengths of weathered lumber—complete with rusty nails sticking out!

Trash hauled off the beach came in by the
truckload in the late afternoon. 

Beside the dumpster we piled a couple dozen plastic shellfish grow bags, which we hope to return to their owners. Volunteers took home several of the dozen-or-so styrofoam crab pot buoys to use as space-fillers under the dirt layer of large pots for plants. Everyone was enthusiastic about saving the collection bags, which were repurposed from originally holding bird seed or agricultural materials.

For those who were interested in a detailed analysis, a printed form helped us tally their takes. A 5-year-old volunteer named Ellie and I dumped out her small bag of trash, and she carefully counted out microplastics (20 pieces), bottle caps (3), straws (1), rope (1), bottles (1), pen-cap (1), and cans (1). Like everyone else who helped out on our Earth Day cleanup, Ellie took great pride and pleasure in her work that day.

PVC pipe, buckets, and hoses were also
common in the debris recovered.

Olympic Disposal, who generously donated their services, recorded a final whopping 2,100 pounds of debris removed!

My spirits were uplifted for days afterwards. I can’t wait to do dumpster duty again in September, when we’ll participate in International Coastal Cleanup Day. I hope you can join us, stay tuned for the date by checking out our Coastal Cleanups webpage here.

By Jenna Kinghorn, PTMSC Volunteer