FOLAR Clean Up Event

Hello everyone, my name is Antonio Campos and I am in Professor Hernandez's ENGL 2030 class at California State University Los Angeles. Professor Hernandez invited us to go to the FOLAR event this past Saturday in order to clean up the middle section of the Los Angeles River. Personally I thought the event was going to be kind of boring, however, after meeting up with my classmates, working together, and learning the history of the LA River, these events made the experience totally worth it.

As mentioned beforehand I participated in cleaning the LA River and found all sorts of trash throughout the area. One of the most common things to find were garbage bags and various types of fabrics that have degraded over time in the riverbed. Volunteering at the FOLAR  clean up event showed showed me just how much waste we through on the ground and how that waste eventually leads to the LA River through the various storm drains found throughout the city of Los Angeles.

The FOLAR clean up event relates to our class/readings by emphasizing the idea of conserving and protecting our environment. It also provides the volunteers an insight as to how much much people are consuming and where it all ends up after one has used it. This experience has taught me to be more conscious of waste I dispose and to think more about our affects on the planet in the long term rather than the short term. Although the LA River may be a one river, there are many other rivers throughout the world that are also being heavily populated due to human waste. As a tenant of this planet we should consider protecting this planet more so it can be able to flourish alongside us.