FOLAR Clean-Up Event

Hello everyone, my name is Israel Rodriguez and I’m Enrolled for my professor Hernandez’s ENGL 2030 class from California State University Los Angeles. I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Professor Hernandez told us to go to the FOLAR event on a Saturday. I didn’t really want to go because I had other things to do. I thought that this was going to be a waste of time for me, but it wasn’t. On a Saturday morning, I went to the FOLAR event, along with a group of friends. As we got there, we got our gloves and a couple of plastic bags. Once we were in the LA River, I was surprised of the things that I found. Mostly trash. The trash that I could find in the river was baseball cards, Jerseys, pants, cloths, shoes, plastic bottles, shopping carts, tennis balls, footballs, and even a bowling ball. There were many types of trash from many sizes. But most of the trash that was in the River were plastic bags. The sad thing about it was that there was some trash that was already embedded to the dirt and plants from the River, that it was impossible to fully pull it out. Not only did I see trash but also many plants and animals. As I was picking up plastic bags near the river, I could see two ducks swimming in the water. It was a nice view. I didn’t know how much pile of trash the river and what type of trash could end up there until I went to this event. It brings a big concern because most of this trash could end up in the oceans, sea animals, and probably back to our health system. Also, this means that most of the people, who are not fully educated, could easily liter without knowing the consequences it could cause to our rivers, environment, and oceans. I leaned the LA river is an environment where plants and animals live too.

(Cleaning up the LA River)

 (Trash found in the LA River)

 (Trash found in the LA River)