Volunteers help keep Hendry’s Beach clean through Explore Ecology Beach Cleanup

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- Santa Barbara just got cleaner thanks to the Explore Ecology Beach Cleanup.

Volunteers picked up as much trash as they could find scattered throughout Arroyo Burro Beach in an event hosted by the environmental education non-profit organization Explore Ecology.

“People can see that other people care and it makes them care more,” says Watershed Resource Center intern Arushi Lakhan-Pal.

“It's also fun because you're hanging out on the beach and you're you're helping the environment. At the same time, you get a lot of people who really love animals, and that's their biggest drive for it,” says Explore Ecology Environmental Educator Lu Kernstine.

Volunteers like Leonardo de Jesus, who visited from Goleta, made sure they were doing their part to help the ecosystem saying that plastic waste will eventually harm us as consumers.

Environmental expert Lu Kernstine explained that animals start eating a lot of the trash because it eventually starts to look and smell like their food sources. The result is lethal.

Lu Kernstine explained, “We found some dead animals today like washed up on the shore because of that, and then they get entangled in some of the trash, too. They get stuck in it. So it's a pretty big, pretty big problem.“

Though the focus of today’s event was on picking up trash, intern Arushi explained how everyone can do their part to create as little trash as possible to beging with. She said that it’s important to be cognizant of what consumers buy and urged that people should only buy things they need.

Lu Kernstine debunked the myth that one person’s contribution is not sufficient to create lasting change. She emphasized that these cleans ups can create environmental policy changes.

“A lot of people think if I'm just one person, my trash doesn't matter if it's on the ground or if you see it, you're just like, I'm going to leave it alone. Like, I don't need to pick it up. I'm one person, but if everybody thinks that way, then we're not picking up any trash at all and our like, our environment is going to be gross,” says Lu Kernstine.

The beach clean up program will continue to welcome volunteers the second Sunday of each month.