This Saturday the ZeroTrashLaguna group set up a tent on the street in front of the Victoria Laguna Canyon shop and proceeded to collect trash from up and down the Canyon Road. The Red Shirted zealots mantra is zero trash on the beach or the streets leading to the beach. Here in lies the genius of the concept. Beach cleanups are quickly over, the beach is over cleaned by too many volunteers, and then they all go home strangers. Yeah! Good, but momentum is lacking in these endeavors.
Equally clever is to have the cleanups EVERY first Saturday of the month. What’s so impressive about this plan is that it unites neighbors on each street Now we have the forming of a critical mass. It grows. I have met several families and kids on Oak St. who are into picking up trash. In a world where neighbors usually never meet, this is a really cool thing.
Visitors to the neighborhood see the red shirts, the bags and the camaraderie and want to do their own street.
Now they are adding Laguna Canyon Road to the already long list of adopted beaches and streets in Laguna. 60,000 people a day move on that road. The exposure for this simple, brilliant, movement is huge. It grows. Get a Can Catcher from Pikes Peak Industries Inc. Just google it. I like it for it’s durable metal and wood pick up fingers. You can pick up a dime, and it makes picking up trash fun.
Contact Chip McDermott at Zero Trash to start a group in your hood this fall. There are others like us out there. Mark your calendar. First Sat. each month. Rendevous at Cress St. Just pick it up! It grows.
Tex
