It’s been a little while since I’ve popped in here to write anything. March was a whirlwind, and somehow we are already midway through April - how did that happen?! On Saturday I attended the biggest beach clean up (that I’ve ever participated in) at Sandy Hook — one of my favorite NJ shore points. The “Beach Sweeps” event was hosted by Clean Ocean Action and was held at over 60 different locations that day. At Sandy Hook alone, there were approximately 600 volunteers! 😱It was insane, and incredibly inspiring to be a part of.
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Asbury Park Beach Clean Up
Yesterday, I joined my first ever larger group beach clean up effort down in Asbury Park (hosted by the Surfrider Foundation’s Jersey Shore chapter). When I first started paying more attention to all the trash and plastic last summer, I remember thinking how I wanted to look into joining a community clean up (in addition to organizing one myself). There’s something so invigorating and rewarding about being a part of something so much bigger than yourself. Truly an inspiring experience - and if you get the chance to be a part of a big clean up in your area - I highly recommend giving it a go! 🙌🏼
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Beach Plastic Valentine Greeting Cards
Happy Friday! Just wanted to drop in quickly today to write an *official post* about the next installment of beach plastic greeting cards that I launched last Friday: Valentine’s Day cards! There’s 8 cards in the series - all hearts comprised of different selections of litter I’ve collected over the last few months. It was a little bit of a different process creating these than the Christmas cards because these required me to sort the trash by color and fit them into a uniform shape. It was kinda like trying to puzzle fit pieces together that didn’t necessarily go together, but overall I’m really happy with how they turned out and generally excited about how this greeting card line as a whole is growing!
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Beach Plastic Holiday Greeting Cards
If you’ve been following along the last few months - you know that I have been actively picking up litter off of beaches in NJ and NYC. It’s been a combo of solo efforts as well as duo / group efforts. I have primarily focused on Coney Island (where I co-hosted a group clean up with my friend Fiona in October), but have also picked up trash by myself at Sandy Hook, Wildwood, Rockaway Beach, Long Island, and even an old landfill. It’s been fascinating.. as well as heartbreaking... to see the differences (and also the similarities) in what I’ve picked up at each location.
While I’m fairly new to the active litter picking community, I have always had a deep love for the outdoors. I grew up with a backyard that connected to the woods, and spent a lot of time out there. Every summer, I looked forward to going down to the “Jersey Shore” lol. Over the years, the beach has become a meditative happy place for me. A non-negotiable form of self care. This summer, I spent a lot of time walking beaches alone trying to sort through some personal demons (a lot of self doubt)… and one day in late August at Coney Island I decided to consciously switch modes from my typical beach combing (for sea glass, shells, etc) to pick up trash. It was a really eye opening experience - that made me question not only my own negative impact on the planet but the impact we collectively as the human race make.
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Coney Island Beach Clean Up
At the end of August, I wrote about my first experience consciously picking up litter on the beach by myself. If you haven’t read that post yet, you can check it out here! Towards the end, I mentioned my interest in joining a future group community clean up or maybe even starting one myself. Two months later, here I am hosting my own! 🙌🏼
The day I picked up straws and bottle caps by myself, I posted this photo to Instagram and received a ton of really nice comments - one of which was from Fiona, a born and raised Coney Island local and fellow creative. She casually suggested starting a clean up crew, and I agreed that we should make it happen!
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Beach Clean Up Challenge
This summer, I've been heading to the beach every chance I get (no surprise there - haha!) I usually go to hunt for treasures like seashells, sea glass, rocks, etc. - but yesterday at Coney Island I decided to switch from beach combing mode to beach clean up mode. While I'm beach combing, I'm pretty selective about what I pick up... but when I'm in clean up mode I want to pick up EVERYTHING in sight. The two modes are pretty different in that way, but strangely enough I think there is beauty to be found in both processes. Although it isn't the same feeling of excitement per say as finding a giant finished piece of sea glass or a large whole empty conch shell... it was really cool to find that one unique teal bottle cap (in the photo above) and a sole purple straw in a sea of more common colors (clear, red, green, orange). As gross and horrifying of a task as clean ups are - there is nothing that compares to the feeling of knowing that you are leaving a place better than you found it.
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