My name is Francisco Alarcon and I participated in cleaning up DockWeiler beach with California State University Los Angeles' students. At first I did not really mind the idea of cleaning up the beach. I been to the beach plenty of times but never really paid attention to see if there was trash. When we arrived there we were given gloves, bag, and a tally paper. The tally paper was to keep track of all the trash we picked up but we soon realized that the amount of trashed we picked up was too much to tally. I filled up my bag with so much trash that the bag started to rip. I was disappointed to see the amount of trash there was in the beach. After the clean up we were told that DockWeiler beach was one of the "cleanest" beach in California. That just made me shake my head at humanity. We were then informed that animals eat this trash because they confuse it for food. I felt really bad for all the animals that could have been saved if we all just threw the trash in trashcans. It is a shame that people do not take responsibility for their trash and animals are paying the price. This event has definitely made me more aware about this problem. It has motivated me to take more responsibility for my trash. I also stopped using plastic bags, which was very common to find at the beach, when I go grocery shopping. Overall, I am glad I was a part of this event.
