FOLAR, ED

Hello everybody, I am Albert Ramirez, a sophomore, and I am in Professor Hernandez' English 2030 class. Our class was asked to help the environmental group "Friends of the LA River" (FOLAR) in cleaning the disgustingly putrid Los Angeles River. Cleaning the river meant picking up all of the trash in it. This trash was composed mainly of used plastics, but also included empty boxes of diapers, dirty socks, dirty underwear, and batteries. Who would have known clothing ends up in the LA River? It took only 10 minutes to fill a bag with trash. Our class has focused on the impact plastic has had on the environment, and after volunteering with FOLAR, it became evident that plastic is an environmental nuisance. Hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers had toiled away in the burning sun for hours to pick up plastic and had yet to make a dent in the amount of trash littered in and around the river. It was truly astonishing the amount of plastic that accumulated in the river, and even more astonishing to think of the years upon years worth of man power that would be needed to pick up all of the plastic garbage in the world.

This bleak outlook was contrasted only by the realization that there were, in fact, people in this city who cared about the environment enough to go out and make a difference. If there was anything I  learned from this truly eye-opening experience, it is that no matter how bad our environment gets, there will always be good people willing to help fix it.