week 5 Susan zone 3-Thank you Public Works!!! (& 232 butts!)

As you can read in Susan's report below, there are times that things are just so messy, we prefer to not deal with them.  Thank goodness we have the option.  Unfortunately the Public Works folks don't.  So, we really want to send out a big cheer to those who clean up the mess we don't dare to touch!!!!


Hi Ginger,

This morning in zone 3 was not as bad as last week.  However, one thing that I did notice today was a really overwhelming number of cigarette butts. There were large groups of them clustered along the high tide line that appeared to have washed up with sea vegetation and shells.

Today I collected two bags of trash, and one bag of recyclabes (plastic bottles, beer cans, soda cans). 

Among the trash were 3 balloons, sixteen plastic straws, and 232 cigarette butts.

 My husband said that he was impressed that I bent down 232 times this morning. However, the sad thing is that oftentimes I was able to bend down once and pick up 5 or 6 butts at a time because there were so many.

Among the grosser items I collected were a pair of stringy women's underwear and a condom, both of which I approached with a gloved hand and a very long stick. There were also 2 overturned trashcans that I did not deal with. I felt rather bad about leaving the trash there on the ground, but I would have wanted a particulate mask, a rake, and more proper clothing to deal with that mess. It was pretty bad.

As always, the sunrise was glorious and I felt very fortunate to be there.

-Susan Miller