FoLAR: Earth Day Clean Up

Has it ever crossed your mind on where the trash that is not gathered by your cities waste management goes? I mean the filthy trash that accumulates on the streets instead of the trash cans. Well what if I said that the trash, especially in the streets, will eventually travel to the ocean and has caused countless issues with the health of our planet which will not have a solution to fix. Hello, my name Christian Flores and I am a first year at Cal State University Los Angeles learning about environmental issues that have arose due several reasons like pollution, overpopulation, etc. I have

spent quality time researching on the effects of pollution, particularly trash, and have participated in many a few non-profit organizations to gain a better understanding of the issue and to help prevent these issues.

I recently participated in the FOLAR River Clean Up; This was an organized cleanup for the L.A. River and was so surprised to see the turnout of people who contributed their time for the River. This is really important to me because I live near this River and bike down its bike path; I get so upset to see it filthy with other people’s garbage so always wanted to contribute to cleaning it up. I highly recommend participating in events like this to keep a cleaner community and to prevent any pollution from harming our natural resources.

So how did all this trash end up in the river in the first place? Well it is mainly due to the trash in the street, which gets blown or washed down into the sewer drains, and it is also just tossed by some careless people that don’t believe disposing of trash in the proper areas is necessary. This Creates an issue not only because of have a trashy L.A. River but also because it travels to the ocean. After reading articles from the non-profit organization Heal the Bay, I learned that all trash on the streets and not picked up will eventually find its way to the ocean. This is where the trash becomes really devastating to the environment.