Glowsticks, Lots of Plastic and a Rat
Rob Davis
Voice of San Diego
04/19/2010
A wig, concrete, a burned shoe, Christmas lights, glowsticks. And a rat.
That's just a sample of the nearly 7,400 pounds of trash (and animal carcasses) that beach cleanup volunteers kept out of the ocean in 2009.
San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation's local chapter tallied the stats from the 20 cleanups they organized from Oceanside to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some other interesting facts from the environmental groups:
• 80 percent of the garbage was plastic.
• 48,007 cigarette butts were picked up -- about 8,000 more than average. (The events also had more volunteers, which could account for the increase.)
