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Coastal Cleanup | National Geographic


even as the first day of autumn hovers
over American shores traces of summer
linger so every year at this time nearly
half a million people step forward to
help to volunteer in an International
Coastal Cleanup and the results can be
staggering in the last couple of years
alone an average of 8 million pounds of
trash is collected worldwide please
watch where you put your feet watch what
you grab with your hands we have found
in the past hypodermic needles we found
drug paraphernalia from California to
New Jersey and here along the banks of
the Potomac River just outside
Washington DC people Don protective gear
and comb the coast for trash from
cigarette butts to candy wrappers every
little item is recorded by the Ocean
Conservancy the sponsor of the cleanup
since it started in 1986 there’s a lot
of our trash that’s found unfortunately
is not coming off the ships in the dark
of night it’s coming from land in areas
people who were at the beaches people
who are inland and things are washing
downstream
all this out here I was so shocked I
came out here I thought oh you know
people don’t litter that lets just see
stuff on the side of the roads and we
come out here everyone pick a lot of it
up one day and then the next day come
back and there’s twice as much as there
was two days before so it seems like
there’s no end at this site 2,000 pounds
of trash were collected in just an hour
and a half
despite their obvious progress in many
places such as here along the Potomac
River the work is far from over the
river is going to require continued
maintained efforts for many generations
to come but we’re getting there this is
a sign that the next generation is going
to care about the resource and it’s
going to want to pass it on to the next
generation
improved everywhere water meets land the
goal of this cleanup is the same to
beautify and restore coastlines and to
get people to think about how they
dispose of their own garbage
so autumns wind will blow cold but
perhaps not so cluttered
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