On a gorgeous April 9 morning, dozens of volunteers including entire families recovered pounds and pounds of trash they’d collected to be weighed and ultimately disposed of or dispensed for the good of Mission Beach.
“It was disappointing to find all the trash in a small area, all the different beer cans, cigarette butts, and sandwiches,” noted Marisa Kaprow of North PB, who joined the beach cleanup, co-sponsored by nonprofit Don’t Trash Mission Beach and the Mission Beach Town Council, with her middle-school-age daughter and three friends. “It was awful. So much nasty stuff, dirty diapers, etc. We took care of it.”
Of contributing to beach beautification, Kaprow said: “It was really special. I told the girls, ‘Look how much cleaner it is. People coming will have a much nicer day because of you.’ They really ‘got’ it.”
“We’ve had Navy people, groups of kids, lots of community members – a great turnout,” pointed out Mission Beach Town Council vice president Sarah Mattinson, adding the town council was hosting a local food drive as well on April 9.
“We’re working on getting the word out and raising the awareness level, one of the most important things,” said Larry Webb, Mission Beach Town Council president about the quarterly beach cleanup. “It’s simply impossible for City Parks and Rec to pick up all the trash here. People have got to take it home with them.”
Webb added that trash and food that doesn’t get picked up until Tuesday by the City after a weekend “get scattered everywhere by seagulls.”
“We go out and pick up trash on a daily basis,” said Don’t Trash Mission Beach core member Tony San Felice. “Picking up baby diapers, broken bottles, and fires still burning in the sand, those things are heartbreaking for me. But this is less about finger-pointing and more about what we can do together to make this a better place for everybody.”
Don’t Trash Mission Beach grew out of initial efforts by resident Cathy Ives back in 2008. “I was blogging and I started picking up litter,” she said. “That’s how it all started. And now it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Instead of fretting about it, Ives decided to do something about the growing trash problem.
“One person from the City picks up all the trash along San Diego’s 45-mile coastline: That’s a problem,” said Ives noting, “People are still drinking, smoking and having bonfires on the beach. Last month, I picked up over 1,800 pieces of litter along one mile of beach. I collected over 600 beach towels, 1,200 clothing items, and 800 pairs of shoes.”
Pointing to a beach regulation sign on a boardwalk stating “no alcohol, dogs, smoking, disturbing noises, overnight camping,” Ives noted: “They don’t enforce even one of those any longer. And these signs are all over.”
Webb noted Mission Beach Town Council hosts a Toys For Tots drive during their year-end holiday beach cleanup.
“We’ve never counted the toys, but each of the last two years we’ve collected $7,000 to $10,000 worth that has been donated,” he said.
San Felice said the primary goal of their nonprofit is public education.
“We want to do something positive, get the word out to people that this is happening,” he said of the beach cleanups. “Eventually, we’d like this to become a one-event-a-year happening where we have entertainment, music, and community participation. But right now, we just want our City Council to understand what’s happening – and be present.”
DON’T TRASH MISSION BEACH
Earth Day (April 22) is every day for the Don’t Trash Mission Beach volunteers who comb South Mission Beach on a daily basis to pick up trash left every day on the shoreline, sand, boardwalks, sidewalks, streets, and parks. The average daily amount of 500 pounds of trash picked up is either discarded appropriately or recycled, upcycled, or cleaned and donated to charity.
The sheer amount of recyclable, salvageable items rescued from the beach in South Mission Beach is staggering. The estimated retail value of items in 2020 exceeded $40,000 a year. That included wasted food, leftover beer, wine, liquor, beach toys, and personal items, including shoes and towels, bringing to light the disposable society’s mindset. For a complete look at the volume of items collected, visit donttrashmissionbeach.com.
Resident Cathy Ives painstakingly logs every single item she collects. On her own, she picked up almost 120,000 pounds in 2020 comprised of food wrappers, bottle caps, bottles, glass, dog feces, balloons, wood, and charcoal from illegal fires.
The group was formed to bring awareness and education around the hazards of beach trash and foster a sense of pride in the community and advocate for personal responsibility and education through beach cleanup events and art installations. In addition, the group promotes a Court Adoption Program where members of the community can sign up as stewards of their streets. The group was formed by residents Ives and Tim and Tony San Felice.
