MALIBU—Volunteers, city staff, and partnered agencies met at the top of Malibu City Hall on Tuesday, October 27 at 8 a.m. to assist in “ Clean up Malibu.”
Upon arriving at the meeting point, guests were checked in and given gloves, trash pickers, trash bags, and hand sanitizer.
Upon a couple of brief introductions to some by the city of Malibu staff, participants were separated into smaller groups and given drop off trash locations that would have certified team members to properly dispose of the trash.
Volunteers and staff picked up trash for two and a half hours along Westward Beach not to far from the Pacific Coast Highway.
“This event today was organized by the city and the ocean is a place that has a lot of trash so I’m trying to make a dent in that,” said City Malibu Staff Aaron Gribben.
“I want to get more familiar with the area and I just wanted to help pick up some trash. There’s always going to be trash so help is always needed,” said City Staff Member Alyssa Gonzalez.
Americans contribute to 14 billion tons of trash, mostly plastic in oceans and seas each year.
During the clean-up event, some items that were thrown away were include plastic straws, plastic bottle caps, and ketchup packets to a couple of larger items like diapers and Styrofoam cups.
“As this clean up is impacting the community, the City of Malibu is getting cleaner happier people happier wildlife. I want to do my part to help the animals,” said Gribben.
Along the way, fellow members of the community stopped to say thank you to those participating in clean up.
“This is going to help the community as far just seeing us out here today in general if people could process that if there already out and on a walk they can help pick up trash too,” said Gonzalez.
