ARCHIVE
2010.06.16
by Kit Nagamura
I was asked recently to join Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN) to learn how to be a "captain" at the September International Coastal Cleanup. How complicated could that be, I wondered? Just bend down, and pick up garbage, right? I discovered there was plenty to gleen, and once I had an idea of what needed to be done, I called for Nishimachi International School volunteers to join me.
Parents, kids, and even Nishimachi's Middle School Principal Mick Hilleson and his wife gathered at Ebisu station, where we boarded early morning train down to Kugenuma Kaigan, a popular surfing beach near Enoshima.
During an official International Coastal Cleanup, all collected waste gets categorized, counted, and recorded. Junk from fishing boatsóold nets, lures, and Styrofoam boxes, etc. had to be separated from household trash items such as plastic bottles, obento containers, straws, and food wrappers. There are sub-categories for toys, bicycles, fireworks, and even medical syringes. We were encouraged to seek out even the teeniest visible pollution, in the form of rice-sized resin pellets, which collect in the systems of birds and fish, often killing them.
It drizzled for the first hour, but I never heard a single complaint from anyone in our amazing group. We collected hundreds of cigarette butts, strange bottles and endless bits of plastic. There was a prize for the most interesting bit of trash, and Mr. Hilleson easily won with his find: a tiny plastic Santa Claus.
During the course of the day, we talked about the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, a massive flotilla of plastic refuse, apparently now the size of a continent. It's nearly impossible and prohibitively expensive to haul out garbage once it's swirling mid-ocean. Therefore, when some of the trash washes up on our shores, it's one of our only opportunities to right what we have wronged in terms of our environment. The other opportunity is a daily one: avoid plastic whenever possible, because it's the most pervasive and permanent form of pollution in the ocean; it simply never disappears.
On behalf of Community Services, I want to thank everyone who participated in this event, and encourage further beach excursions to make the shores cleaner.
Beach Clean-up
by Kit Nagamura
I was asked recently to join Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN) to learn how to be a "captain" at the September International Coastal Cleanup. How complicated could that be, I wondered? Just bend down, and pick up garbage, right? I discovered there was plenty to gleen, and once I had an idea of what needed to be done, I called for Nishimachi International School volunteers to join me.
Parents, kids, and even Nishimachi's Middle School Principal Mick Hilleson and his wife gathered at Ebisu station, where we boarded early morning train down to Kugenuma Kaigan, a popular surfing beach near Enoshima.
During an official International Coastal Cleanup, all collected waste gets categorized, counted, and recorded. Junk from fishing boatsóold nets, lures, and Styrofoam boxes, etc. had to be separated from household trash items such as plastic bottles, obento containers, straws, and food wrappers. There are sub-categories for toys, bicycles, fireworks, and even medical syringes. We were encouraged to seek out even the teeniest visible pollution, in the form of rice-sized resin pellets, which collect in the systems of birds and fish, often killing them.
It drizzled for the first hour, but I never heard a single complaint from anyone in our amazing group. We collected hundreds of cigarette butts, strange bottles and endless bits of plastic. There was a prize for the most interesting bit of trash, and Mr. Hilleson easily won with his find: a tiny plastic Santa Claus.
During the course of the day, we talked about the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, a massive flotilla of plastic refuse, apparently now the size of a continent. It's nearly impossible and prohibitively expensive to haul out garbage once it's swirling mid-ocean. Therefore, when some of the trash washes up on our shores, it's one of our only opportunities to right what we have wronged in terms of our environment. The other opportunity is a daily one: avoid plastic whenever possible, because it's the most pervasive and permanent form of pollution in the ocean; it simply never disappears.
On behalf of Community Services, I want to thank everyone who participated in this event, and encourage further beach excursions to make the shores cleaner.