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# Volunteers scoop up patriotic trash for Clean Beaches Week
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/volunteers-scoop-up-patriotic-trash-for-clean-beaches-week/
- Published: 2006-07-06T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T18:45:35.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Environment, Pier, #archive-import

*By MILOS BLAGOJEVIC Special to the Daily Press*

SM BEACH — One day after Americans celebrated their country’s 230th birthday by playing, picnicking and partying, several Santa Monicans spent the morning cleaning up after them.

Local residents and members of various environmental groups joined forces to clean Santa Monica Beach just north of the pier on Wednesday — the final day of National Clean Beaches Week, which is organized by the Clean Beaches Council (CBC).

The finale’s timing — one day after the Independence Day holiday — was no coincidence, according to Walter McLeod, president of the CBC.

“It’s purposely set up to coincide with the Fourth of July,” McLeod said. “The Fourth is arguably the trashiest beach holiday of the year. We want people to be educated about their responsibility to keep beaches clean. If they’re the ones who put the litter on the beach, they’re the ones who need to make sure the litter comes off the beach.”

By 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the beaches were littered with the remnants of illegal fireworks, beer bottles and other debris, making the sand itself, in some instances, hard to see.

The finale, held in Santa Monica to recognize the city’s efforts to increase public responsibility and stewardship of public beaches, was one of more than 50 events staged throughout the country n celebration of National Clean Beaches Week, according to the CBC.

“We’re extremely satisfied,” McLeod said. “We collected probably 2,000 pounds of litter. It’s hard for people to do this in a mid-week day, but people came, and it just shows that there is interest in this issue of clean beaches.

“People are willing to make sacrifices in order to protect what they care so much about.”

The Santa Monica event was highlighted by the appearance of the Ocean Futures Society’s Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the legendary French ocean explorer and ecologist Jacques Cousteau.

“The Fourth of July is usually a time of celebration, but unfortunately we usually trash the beaches in the process,” Cousteau said.“Doing this on the Fifth of July gives us a chance to pick up our own trash so it does-n’t go into the ocean and affect marine life.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 6, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070606.pdf?ref=smdp.com)