Kevin Ueda
Special to the Daily Press

SM BEACH — By the time the Fourth of July winds down, it’s the sand that needs to be liberated.

According to city beach supervisor Paul Davis, beachgoers celebrating the nation’s independence tend to litter Santa Monica’s beaches so densely that they become invisible.

This year, however, there might just be more to celebrate on Fourth of July weekend than the nation’s independence.

The second annual Clean Beaches Week — from June 29 to July 5 — is a national event aimed at cleaning and heightening appreciation for beaches along the 30 coastal states, according to Walter McLeod, president of the Clean Beaches Council.

“We focus on that week because the fourth is traditionally a beach holiday, especially since environment and clean beaches are at the heart of what it’s all about,” McLeod said.

The core of the Clean Beach Council’s concerns is the cleanliness of beaches — a facet often neglected during celebrations.

“The fourth has been, historically, a trashy holiday,” McLeod said. “People are celebrating our independence, which is a great thing, but in the process, they neglect to be better stewards of the land that they cherish.

“We want to instill the same pride in the nature aspects of our environment as our independence.”

July 5 has the most trash of any day in the year, according to Davis.

“There’s so much trash you can’t even see the sand,” Davis said. “There’s so much debris covering the sand.”

Each day at 5 a.m., a cleanup crew of about 23 rake the beaches of Santa Monica to clean up the sand, sweep handicap ramps and check the childrens’ swing sets in preparation for the onslaught of sunseekers.

“(There is) another crew that does graffiti every day: gang writing, sometimes artwork,” Davis said.

Despite the ban on cigarette smoking on the beach, Davis’ morning cleanup crews find those scattered about the sand too.

“We still find ’em,” Davis said, adding beer bottles, paper cups and fast food trash is also routinely collected.

“The thing that pisses me off, I guess you could say, is the diapers,” he said.

In addition to litter and maintenance, Clean Beaches Week is also about health, recreation and transportation.

“Environment is the core issue, but we are also focusing on the health benefits of seafood over other not-so-healthy food choices,” McLeod said. “People should choose healthier diets.”

Also stressed are environmentally friendly activities, such as surfing, volleyball and ultimate frisbee, and also traveling via foot, bicycle or carpooling.

“Most people who go to the beach in the summer — there are 180 million — drive to the beach,” McLeod said. “It’s important to conserve fuel, and cut down the emissions related to cars and transportation.”

Cities involved with Clean Beaches Week come forward on a voluntary basis, McLeod said. So far, the responses have been overwhelming.

On July 5, the final day of the event, a beach cleanup will be staged nationwide from 9 a.m. to noon.

A list of events that will take place in Santa Monica can be found at http://www.cleanbeaches.org/events, which receives submissions by local groups and individuals organizing activities for the event.

On Tuesday night, the City Council asked staff to draft a sweeping ban on all plastic foam packaging for food-related items throughout the city, including to-go boxes, and plastic cups, plates and utensils.

“We definitely advocate for plastic bans, whether they be local or statewide,” said Kirsten James, a staff scientist with the city’s Heal the Bay organization. “Our main focus is the impact on marine life.”

If approved, all non-recyclable food packaging — signified by the number six within the triangular recycling insignia on the bottom of packages — would be banned in the city.

Plastics used in food utensils and containers are usually found during beach monthly clean-ups, said Kirsten James, a staff scientist with the city’s Heal the Bay organization.

“If there’s recently been a rain event, then we find a lot of stuff that’s come in stormdrains from inlands,” James said. “We find a lot of trash ... a lot of cigarette butts, a lot of plastics, a lot of plastic bags, tons of Styrofoam pieces.

“We find just about everything down there: bottles, cans, Doritos bags.”

Heal the Bay, which hosts its own nationwide beach clean-up on Sept. 16, advocates the ban on all unrecyclable food packaging.

Davis said that in past years, he has tried to change the national beach clean-up day from September, when there are fewer people and less trash on the beach, to July, when the trash load is at its heaviest.

“In September, the beach is fairly clean and summer’s winding down ... whereas July 4, it’s the biggest beach day of the year,” Davis said. “We tried, but they wouldn’t go for it.

“Hopefully, with Walter’s help this year, we should be all right,” he said. “I’m hoping.”