Science Forward

I felt quite lucky after finding out that we were the only class that had had a background discussion pertaining to plastics and their influence on our ecosystems. Not only did it help me be more aware of the importance of the activity that I was about to complete, but it also allowed me to share some information with the people from the other classes.

Once the group was complete, we were given directions as to what to do and which areas of the survey to fill out. Then once we were assigned specific parts of the shoreline, we commenced our job of not only cleaning up the beach and throwing out in the trash any garbage found, but also classifying them and seeking any patterns with any possible brands/companies which plastic materials could be commonly found along the beach.

I want to thank professor Branco and his graduate student for organizing the plastic collection project so well. Everything went smooth and the method of picking up the plastic and analyzing it was definitely efficient and easy to understand.

After about an hour and a half, we had completed our survey which consisted of tallying up the plastic residues found and putting them into categories. We covered over 1000 ft² of the beach and collected more than half of plastic bag worth of plastic along with glass and lots and lots of Styrofoam.

At the end of the activity, it was evident for me that the beach had been built to protect the highway from storms such as Sandy and it saddens me to realize that not only does the beach have to deal with the erosion it undergoes due to natural causes, but also the lack of human care for it. After taking into consideration all of the plastic found by all of the groups, it proved once again that we are an obvious cause of the decaying health of our home, Earth.

Horseshoe crab found while cleaning