Thanks to all who turned out Sunday for the sixth annual Bainbridge Island Beach Cleanup at shorelines islandwide.
Hawley Cove Park was the site of a special Escaped Trash Assessment Project, with Sustainable Bainbridge and other island organizations working in partnership with Zero Waste Washington . Volunteers sorted, categorized and logged various trash items found along the driftwood beach and tide flats: plastic, styrofoam, cans and bottles – and the obligatory tire, extracted from the mud flat by Ben Van Patten of Boy Scout Troop 1496.
More about ETAP from Xenia Dolovova, Waste Reduction Program Manager for Zero Waste Washington:
“Zero Waste Washington has been working with the EPA and with partner organizations to develop a standardized litter assessment protocol. As an add-on to existing cleanup events, we are counting, weighing and photographing litter picked up at beaches, parks, along roads, and other public places. We train volunteers, provide needed supplies and equipment and help enter the data into a database.
“Why? We are working collaboratively to build a credible database that demonstrates impairments to water quality. By doing assessments across the state, we can compare apples-to-apples data. For example, we can look at the question of how many cigarette butts are found per square foot in a specific beach area compared to a local park.
Gathering these data will help us create a regional report so that we can make the case that plastic litter should be considered a pollutant under the federal Clean Water Act. Making trash officially a pollutant will ultimately lead to required fixes.”
Once again – great job, all!
