This weekend saw was the 38th annual International Coastal Cleanup Day. Local non-profit Eco-Slo, an environmental conservationist group, hosted a Creeks to Coast Clean-up across SLO County on September 17.
Maureen Abert has volunteered for the nonprofit for seven years. This year, she led the Morro Rock clean-up and collected buckets of trash from other volunteers.
Abert said the Ocean Conservancy uses the data collected to shape environmental legislation.
“So cigarette butts, bottle caps, cans, things like that. Whatever they find. And then we collect all that data and add it up and it goes to the state and the Ocean Conservancy.”
Since the start of the conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, more than 17 million people have volunteered worldwide and have cleaned about 348 million pounds of trash.
Abert says on the Central Coast, cities with a higher tourism rate will typically produce more trash like Avila or Pismo Beach, but you won’t find as much trash in Morro Bay. Eco-Slo has been cleaning SLO County’s creeks and coasts since 2005.
