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New in 2013: Tsunami Sweepers

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Coordinator, Lexi Ambrogi!Lexi

Here at I Love A Clean San Diego, we love a good reason to get out and clean up our communities. Whether it’s a street-sweep cleanup to prevent trash from washing down our storm drains and out to sea, or a post-holiday beach cleanup to pick up after 4th of July beachgoers, we are always looking for practical and meaningful reasons to inspire our volunteers to keep San Diego beautiful.

This Saturday, January 26, we’ll be kicking off a new series of beach cleanups at Torrey Pines State Beach called Tsunami Sweepers. In addition to combing the shoreline for standard beach litter (cigarette butts, plastic bags, Styrofoam scraps), our volunteers will be searching for a very specific types of debris.

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Tsunami debris in Santa Cruz. Source.
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Tsunami debris in Oregon. Source.

Some coastal communities have already seen the beginnings of what will surely be an influx of trash washing ashore: a fridge and buoys in Hawaii, docks in Washington and Oregon, and more.

ILACSD has teamed up with the California Coastal Commission to host a series of cleanup events in 2013 that are designed to help us track and understand more about the debris from this tsunami.

Volunteers who join us for this series of events will be briefed on what to look for in identifying debris from Japan (Japanese writing, or large pieces of shipping or building materials, to name a few).

If you’re interested in attending this cleanup and joining in the effort to help scientists understand more about this natural disaster and how it will impact your community, email Lexi Ambrogi at lambrogi@cleansd.org to sign up.

If you can’t make it out this weekend, don’t worry—we’ll be hosting several more of these events throughout 2013. Hope to see you there!