Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016: Santa Monica Beach Trash Report

Dateline: Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, along the beach in Santa Monica from the Santa Monica Pier south to Ocean Park... it was business as usual for the state of the beach from the water line to the berm in terms of the abundance of trash uncollected by the City of Santa Monica.  It is absolutely disgusting and unconscionable for the City to not hand pick the trash as it says it does along the water line.  Beach goers are left with a beach that is absolutely disgusting in terms of the amount of trash that is not being collected and/or disposed of by the City of Santa Monica.  We also observed trash around the trash cans at mid beach uncollected by the City of Santa Monica.  With respect to the latter, all the sanitation workers have to do is get out of their trucks and tractors and hand pick up the trash but they just don't seem to get out of their vehicles.  Just take a look at these photos and you too will understand our frustration and disappointment in the City of Santa Monica not taking responsibility for picking up the trash on the beach as it should.

The Photos:

At approximately 10:45 a.m. onward...

Below, a discarded Calif. Cannabis container (Gorilla Glue Indica)...

Below, four (4) empty bottles of Modelo beer between the water line and the berm adjacent to Lifeguard Tower #17...  uncollected by the small but mighty staff of City sanitation workers that are said to hand pick and collect trash in this area of the beach...

 

Below, I stepped on this buried bottle of beer next to Lifeguard Tower #20, which was fortunately not broken and then kicked it partially above the surface of the sand to take this photo... all while speaking to the lifeguard at Tower #20 who saw the whole thing go down...

*** Video Alert ! ***

•  Video #1:  Buried Glass Bottle

      https://youtu.be/vOacyfdSwlE
•  Video #2:  Another Buried Glass Bottle

     https://youtu.be/3SszEYlKFVM

Below, the two empty bottles that I stepped on that were buried in the sand beside Lifeguard Tower #20...

Below, bottle caps found in the sand near Lifeguard Tower #22...

Below, is a handful of trash I collected adjacent to Lifeguard Tower #22...

After walking the beach to Ocean Park at Lifeguard Tower #26, we took a swim and then walked back toward the Pier... 

Below, just look at all this trash left near the trash cans at mid beach.  Why doesn't the City sanitation staff stop their trucks and pick this up?!... Instead, they ignore it and do not pick it up and just leave it there for everyone to see.  Just how much is the City collecting per car parked in the City lots adjacent to this beach trash that is not collected by the City?!

At the water line below...

Meanwhile, just look how beautiful the ocean is at the water line.  This is why we care so much about this beach and why we think that the City of Santa Monica should actually hand pick up the trash along the water line AS THE CITY SAYS THAT IT DOES!... but which it obviously does not do!...

the remaining five (5) photos were taken between the Lifeguard Tower #16 just south of the Santa Monica Pier and the pier itself, a distance of perhaps 200 yards... the same trash that we photographed approximately 2 hours earlier and posted above was still there and uncollected by the City of Santa Monica.  When exactly is the City going to clean up this part of the beach?!...  Why isn't this area hand picked in the morning before the people come to the beach that pay a fortune for parking in the City parking lots?!...
 

Does anyone think that the City of Santa Monica hand picks up the trash between the water line and the berm? This morning it was even worse than that as the City did not pick up the trash above the berm adjacent to and just south of the Santa Monica Pier.

It is tremendously disappointing that the City of Santa Monica does not clean this area of the beach that the public encounters in great numbers.

Respectfully submitted,

William Maguire,
Santa Monica, Calif.

(All photos and videos by & Copyright William Maguire 2016.)

***   ***   ***