Fireworks, beverages, snacks, balloons, and butts of various smokeables… all that makes the 4th of July the biggest day of celebration in the country, and also makes it the dirtiest day for our beaches. But the county-wide beach cleanup known as the “Morning After Mess” is like an Ibuprofen-and-Cali-burrito combo for the environmental hangover faced by our beaches the next day.
The day after Independence Day, the 5th of July, is unquestionably the dirtiest beach day in America. Following the spirited celebrations of the 4th, our nation’s beaches—and not just coastal beaches, but lake shores, bays, and riverbends—are littered with thousands of pounds of trash. Being one of the largest coastal cities in America as well as vacation destination, San Diego’s beaches get particularly trashed by plastic, cigarette butts, and fireworks debris, which account for a large percentage of collected trash.
But thanks to our partners at Surfrider Foundation and eight other local nonprofits (including San Diego Coastkeeper), the dirtiest beach day of the year is also one of the biggest beach cleanups of the year! It’s known as the “Morning After Mess”, a county-wide cleanup event that both helps our coastal ecosystems and serves as a visual reminder of the negative impact we have on the environment when we don’t pack out what we pack in.
On July 5th, some of the county’s leading environmental organizations hosted cleanup events at nine beaches along San Diego’s coastline, from Oceanside to Imperial Beach. San Diego Coastkeeper hosted the cleanup at Mission Beach, the third messiest in the county, in terms of trash by weight.
In total, 866 volunteers hauled over 2,615 pounds of trash from our coastline that day, beautifying our community beaches and protecting coastal habitats.
Total Weights by Site:
- Imperial Beach: 76 lbs
- Seaport Village at @sallyssandiego: 125 lbs
- Ocean Beach: 169 lbs
- OB Dog Beach & Estuary with @sandiegoriver: 700 lbs
- Fiesta Island with @iloveacleansd: 751 lbs
- Mission Beach with @sd_coastkeeper: 254 lbs
- Pacific Beach with @paddleforpeace: 173 lbs
- Moonlight Beach with @thebountifulbag & @sdbrewcycling: 135 lbs
- Oceanside: 234 lbs
In Mission Beach, our intern, Dylan, and Marine Programs Manager, Marie, were on site bright and early to help eager volunteers get started. And by early afternoon, you wouldn’t have known one of the year’s largest (and messiest) celebrations had ever happened.
Mission Bay’s Morning After Mess Impact:
- Volunteers: 87
- lbs of trash: 254
- Macro Plastics: 522
- Micro plastics: 57
- Cigarette Butts: 148
- Metal Items, including Firework debris: 105
Fun fact: these are conservative figures—by all accounts, more was likely collected. (Way to go, volunteers!)
Thank you to the 87 volunteers who came out to help bring Mission Beach back to beauty—and to all 866 volunteers and partner organizations who showed up to make this cleanup so successful. Special thanks, too, to our friends at Surfrider for organizing the “Morning After Mess” in San Diego County.
