Second TRASH-a-thon Clean Up

We conducted our second TRASH-a-thon clean up on November 6, 2016. We had 13 volunteers, which included someone from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center! This was a very big deal to me, because the Georgia Sea Turtle Center is over an hour away! Her name is Holly Buresh, and she is an AmeriCorps member working with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center Marine Debris Citizen Science program. This is part of the larger NOAA Marine Debris Program which aims to eliminate marine debris along our coasts and in our oceans.

It was awesome to have Miss Holly with us! She told the kids about how all of the trash here could lead to the ocean. We are 60 miles from the ocean, so why is our trash still considered marine debris? Our trash is considered marine debris, because our trash will eventually go down a river or other waterway and end up in the ocean. All rivers lead to the ocean in some way. Now, how does our trash get to the rivers? Sometimes it rains or the wind blows, carrying the trash into a ditch and eventually a nearby creek or river. Some waterways close by include the Alabaha River, Hacklebarney Creek, Little Satilla River, and Big Satilla River. Yes, every one of these waterways eventually leads to the Georgia coast and the Atlantic Ocean.

During this trash cleanup, we covered 0.71 miles. All of the trash we collected weighed 850 pounds. Our most common item was plastic bottles (of course!). Our most ironic item was a recycling bin. It just does not make sense. Somebody wanted to recycle and then threw the recycling bin out? At least that – and the 407 other items we picked up that day – will not make it to the ocean to become marine debris!