Barton is a high school sophomore and lives in Spring Valley.
As I leaned over the railing of a bridge on Olive Lane in Santee, I couldn’t help but be saddened by what I saw. The Forester Creek gorge was covered in litter, a palette of disgustingly bright colors that didn’t belong there. A single palm seedling had eight articles of trash caught on it from the river’s current. The bleak atmosphere was stifling. Not a creature was in sight.
A few minutes before, I had wrapped up a field trip for the annual San Diego Bird Festival at Santee Lakes. An attendee told me about Santee’s litter problem and offered to drive me to that very bridge. I was shocked to see how something so close to the pristine Santee Lakes could be so filthy. Trash like this collects bit by bit over time, and it takes far too long to decompose. Even when it does, it breaks up into pieces of “microtrash,” which poses a big threat to scavenging wildlife.
A few days ago, I led a photography workshop at Balboa Park. For one activity, we had a model throw confetti in the air while the others photographed the scene. We had planned to do it over a trash can, but the wind blew much of the confetti onto the ground. So, while I continued the workshop, my co-leader swept up the confetti before it could blow away. As I thought about this small act of service, I wondered what would have happened if we hadn’t cleaned after ourselves. That confetti was a handful of microtrash, and left to the wind, who knows where it could have ended up! Now, a few pieces of confetti may not seem important, but over 3.2 million people are living in San Diego County. Suppose everyone left a piece of litter on the ground — a coffee cup, or maybe a napkin. Now what if they did that every day? That’s a lot of litter in what some consider the home of “America’s Finest City.”
And as you’ve probably heard, a good portion of our litter ends up in the sea. It’s likely that some of that trash back in the Forester Creek gorge has made its way to our oceans. In fact, Oceana USA estimates that 33 billion pounds of plastic enters the ocean every year. That’s two garbage truckloads a minute. One hundred-twenty truckloads every hour. Every single hour, every single day.
So we produce tons of trash and don’t dispose of it properly. What are the consequences? Well, it’s unsightly and uninviting to others. It also ends up in our waterways, harming environments and the wildlife living within them. Marine animals get tangled in or ingest trash and are oftentimes exposed to toxic substances. Sometimes the problems can get so severe that beaches are closed to public access, which happens frequently here in San Diego. According to the Global Conservation Force Organization, “Many studies have shown that when litter already exists, people are more likely to continue littering in that same area.” Litter reduces property value and may even raise crime rates. But here’s the hard part: It’s difficult to undo what’s already been done. In fact, it is estimated that the U.S. spends about $11.5 billion cleaning up trash every year. Imagine those tax dollars going to something more useful!
What would it be like if we were a part of the solution and took responsibility for our actions instead of relying on others to clean up our mess? What if we treated everyday roadsides as if they were our own homes? Simply asking these questions won’t be enough, however, until there is a change in the collective mindset, and the best place to start is with our youth. Parents teaching and modeling how to “leave a place better than how you found it” would be a great start. This family initiative paired with schools annually educating about the impact of our actions might begin to move the needle in how we care for the planet.
And we can’t stop there. In our communities, we have the opportunity to take action. Something as simple as bringing a bag to collect trash the next time you take your dog for a walk can make a difference. Imagine if everyone did that! By intentionally caring for this planet we have been given, we will inspire others, including future generations, to do the same. The sad reality is that we often do not fully appreciate things until they’re gone. Let’s not wait for that to happen. Instead of thinking “Earth Day,” let’s think about Earth, every day. With this perspective, our future generations can enjoy this incredible gift of creation as much as we do.
