At the Encinitas City Council meeting on 6/27/07 the Parks & Rec staff acknowledged that on busy weekends, holiday weekends and summer days the trash cans at our beaches are overflowing. Go to Moonlight Beach on a Sunday morning and the trash is oozing all over and the seagulls are picking through it, spreading it even further afield. It has been like this for years. Here is a photo from 2002. Not July 4th weekend, but June 16th 2002.
Here are recommendations in the 2002 Blue Ribbon Environment Committee report: “Increase the number of trashcans and/or frequency of collection at Moonlight Beach. During peak use periods the trashcans are filled to overflowing. Currently these overflowing trashcans are left overnight, resulting in the scattering of litter by seagulls and other wildlife before the trash is collected in the morning. A final, late day trash collection should be instituted, rather than, or in addition to, the current early morning trash collection… In addition, the number of trash cans could be increased during peak use periods and reduced during low use periods.” And there is an entire recommendation on Public Recycling that includes suggestions for the beaches. Okay, so they did start recycling at Moonlight Beach and other parks – it is those blue metal trash cans with a dinky recycling section on top.They look like this:
I wonder if people are even aware that is for recycling –the signage is awful. People are generally lazy about recycling, so we need to encourage people and have good signage and a lot of obvious bins. And the capacity is very small - any volume of people and those things are overflowing.
So here we are in 2007 (that is FIVE years later) and the Parks and Rec folks propose to try and reduce the trash from 4th of July holiday beachgoers. They have some signs and two kinds of plastic bags – one for trash and one for recycling. The idea as far as I understand it is that people take bags when they arrive, fill them up while they are there, and when they leave deposit them into trash cans or recycling receptacles (are there any besides those little top sections on the blue metal cans?...because a bag certainly won’t fit in there). If cans are full, which of course they will be, people should deposit their bags on the ground next to the cans. Well, yes that is better than just trash and recycling items placed directly on the ground, but how about this for an idea? INCREASE the NUMBER of trash cans and put out some DECENT SIZED recycling receptacles, and INCREASE THE FREQUENCY of pickups during busy periods.A visit to Moonlight Beach this morning shows that there are FOUR blue metal trash cans with recycling on top for the whole beach area (2 of these are against the food kiosk and one is at the volleyball courts, that leaves ONE for the entire sandy beach area!). There are quite a few other just trash cans at the beach. There are also 3 of these trash/recycling cans around the playground and two in the lawn area going east from the playground).
Yes, I know it would cost more to provide more trash and recycling receptacles and to increase the frequency of pick-ups – but don’t you think keeping our beaches clean and keeping trash out of the ocean is worth it? Encinitas is all about the beaches and the ocean - it is our jewel. When pressed at the City Council meeting by Houlihan and Barth about expanding the proposed July 4th plastic bag recycling program to other beaches (like Beacons, which often has overflowing trash cans) and to other times of year, Parks and Rec said that, well, “We’ll play it by ear and see how it goes.” What is there to figure out? Isn’t keeping trash off the beach and out of the ocean a no brainer? Isn’t increasing recycling and reducing our waste a no brainer? I just don’t get it.
Some recycling receptacles are not that expensive.
How about this? The City could even sell advertising on them and MAKE money.Jesse Giessow
I am not sure if dig the cheapie receptacles or slapping ads on everything.
ReplyDeleteMaking sure that you have enough trash bins for the volume of trash left behind seems like a no brainer. The beaches are more crowded, so we shouldn't be surprised that there is more trash.
The bins at the bottom of the Grandview staircase frequently reach capacity and then people pile trash next to the bins. City staff end up having to pick up all the trash and haul it away anyway. I don't believe that the people doing the work haven't suggested adding more bins. What is the hold up?
Having trash picked up in the evening might be a little complicated but would a good idea and all that is needed is a little thinking outside the box. The city has tons of city staff at the beach all day long.
I was being sarcastic about the advertising. More expensive bins would be nice, but depends how committed the City is on spending money on the effort.
ReplyDeleteHave the fire deparment personal emty the trash recepticals more frequently. There on the clock and carry radios to receive any emergency calls.
ReplyDeleteOr have the volunteer fire fighters, or junior lifeguards or entry level lifguards pick up the trash as a duty to fullfuil the duties to get their foot in the door for the primo job later on in life.
As you have more and more people to the beach you have more and more trash and I'am not sure the answer is more bins. We need to educate People that use the beach to pack out what they pack in. Trash pick up programs by community and youth groups should be encouraged, especially after major holidays.
ReplyDeleteGood suggestions. Yes, pack it out. But be realistic, too. We should have more trash containers at the beach, especially during the summer, and on holidays.
ReplyDeleteHey, they have advertising on bus benches, sometimes. I would much rather have some temporary trash receptacles with ads on them, than have the trash just piled up next to the overflowing blue receptacle.
They have advertising on TV, at Seaworld. Are you boycotting TV? More trash cans would be great, and if selling advertising works, then that's fine. But I would rather see the advetisers, themselves, placing the trash receptacles. The City can pick them up, with the rest of the trash. I don't think our City should be in the business of selling advertising, no.
Email the city council and the city manager...tell them you want more trash cans and more frequent trash pick-up.
ReplyDeleteYes, we do need to educate people about being responsible for their trash and to try and REDUCE waste. Part of reducing waste is to recycle and if we don't even provide recycling receptacles or only provide a few small ones, then what kind of 'education' is that for the public? We should encourage people to pack it out, but I am not sure that realistically it will happen with a lot of people..
ReplyDeleteBill Arballo said...When you visit the County Fair you can't help but notice how clean it is even at night.It has a frequent schedule for emptying the containers. People do use the recycling bins and the Fair makes hundreds of dollars for these recycled cans and bottles. The council might consider having Nancy Strauss who is in charge of the recycling program make a presentation. Incidentially there are grants available for recycling. Does the city sell it recycles?
ReplyDeleteIt is not that hard to do this. We could work with city staff who are on the beach already to empty cans during the day OR we could write this service into the concession contract for the food service.
ReplyDeleteEDCO gets the money from the recyclables.
ReplyDeleteI was just at Beacons picking up trash, late night, with my kid playing in the sand.
ReplyDeleteWondering: why don't I bring a bag? I can never carry it all.
...Then wondering why we can't have stations of plastic baggies, like they put at parks for dogpoop, for people to collect their (and other's) trash with.
Yeah, I'm an idealist, but I guess that's why I live here and not in PB.
Is this really a big deal?
ReplyDeleteI swear, more people die in Encinitas per week than Detroit. What the hell?
The next death is due at the old Leucadia RR crossing here in the next several months. Has Jerome done anything about the crossing since his great claims to finding a solution to cure Leucadia's problems?
Poor young lady and poor person who will get murdered at the crossing in the next six months.
Get on it Jerome to prevent more murders. You can be are savior if you stop the murders.
Or you can do nothing as usual or talk about the citizen satisfaction survey.
Jerome- What are you going to do?
ENCINITAS – A young woman who was apparently lying on railroad tracks Saturday in Encinitas was struck and killed by a Coaster train, according to the Sheriff's Department.
The train was traveling southbound approaching the La Costa Avenue overpass at North Coast Highway 101 about 12:15 p.m. when the engineer saw what appeared to be a person lying on the tracks in front of the train, said Sheriff's Sgt. Thomas Yancey.
The engineer was unable to stop the train, which was going about 65 miles an hour, before it struck the woman, Yancey said.
The woman died at the scene, Yancey said.
The Coaster train left Oceanside at 11:52 a.m. and was stopped in the area for a time, according to a North County Transit dispatcher, who said the scene was cleared and the train resumed its southbound journey to San Diego at 1:40 p.m.
Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said one southbound Amtrak train was about two hours behind schedule as a result of delays in several locations.
Murder?
ReplyDeleteStay on topic and please refrain from reposting under different threads.
Firemen have plenty of time to empty trash cans. It can replace their TV watching in the evening. If they get an emergency call they can come back to the can WHEN IT IS OVER. they DO WORK FOR US 24 HOURS AT A TIME
ReplyDeleteRe-Bob Boyd picks out all the bottles and cans out of the beach trash cans anyway.
ReplyDelete