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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, September 22, 2002

Hawai'i groups, individuals join worldwide cleanup effort

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Volunteers from across the state, nation and several parts of the globe stepped out onto beaches, shoreline trails and coastal parks yesterday to snatch up trash before it became ocean pollution.

In Hawai'i, the state's beach cleanup effort — "Get the Drift and Bag It!" — put teams of volunteers on beaches and streams throughout the state from 8:30 a.m. to noon yesterday.

Worldwide, volunteers worked in 117 countries and 55 U.S. states and territories.

On O'ahu alone, 48 sites were cleaned.

The annual effort was sponsored locally by the Hawai'i Sea Grant Program and the Hawai'i Coastal Zone Management Program, as part of the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup.

On Sand Island, volunteers from the Coast Guard coordinated efforts by military members, high-school students from Farrington, 'Aiea and Moanalua, Girl Scouts, firefighters and a few fishermen and sunbathers who decided to grab a bag.

Petty Officer Cannon Schider-Heisel estimated about 200 volunteers had bagged throughout the morning. By 10:30 a.m., they had loaded several hundred bags of trash into a large flatbed truck that cruised in and out of the park.

"A lot of beer cans, beer bottles and soda cans," said Petty Officer Ken Waters. "A lot of cigarette trash: butts and empty packages."

"A lot of fishing line," said Grace Kwon, a volunteer who brought a busload of nearly 100 volunteers. "A lot of stuff stuck between rocks that we couldn't get to."

The Coast Guard provided fruit, bagels, water and sport drinks for the volunteers, who stepped up to the coolers as they turned in their collection sheets, which listed the number and types of trash they'd found.

Bags, batteries, balloons and bait containers were ticked off on the sheets.

"Hey, what's that you've got there?" one of the Coast Guard volunteers called out to Ezra Cortez, a Farrington High School senior who was returning his collection sheet.

A box cutter? A gun clip? The military volunteers took turns looking it over:

"It'd have to be a pretty small caliber."

"A .22?"

"Pellet gun, maybe?"

They agreed on one thing: the clip was empty. Someone passed it back to Cortez, who said he had two good reasons for volunteering to come out yesterday with his classmates.

"The grade," he said. "Plus, I had nothing else to do."

More collection sheets were returned: caps, cups, clothing and condoms. Half a tire and 200 nails. Baby diapers and syringes. Plates, forks, knives and spoons. Tampon applicators.

"Too many cigarette butts to count," one volunteer wrote.

"It's starting to wrap up now," Lt. j.g. Chris Lee observed at about 11 a.m. "All the good stuff is gone by now."

Chris Woolaway of Sea Grant said nearly 1,700 people turned out on O'ahu, some of whom went out as early as 6:30 a.m., so they could leave time to vote.

No tonnage reports were available yet on what was collected this year, she said.

Last year, volunteers in Hawai'i collected 133,663 items weighing a total of nearly 12 tons. The trash included 47,240 cigarette butts, 12,986 food wrappers and bags, 1,984 pieces of rope, 1,899 pieces of fishing line and 1,098 balloons.