“Every year, the community comes out and shows their love of the creek and their city.” Deb Gregory, the President of the Ballona Creek Renaissance, was pleased with the results of another Creek Clean-up.
This past Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024 saw the environmental event at Overland Avenue hosted by Ballona Creek Renaissance, along with Leave No Trace and Parks Project. The numbers tell a story of success; 140 volunteers pulled 520 pounds of trash, 120 pounds of recyclables, and 190 pounds of green waste out of the area, giving the water a chance to flow.
The 35th year of cleaning up the creek saw more trash; the 2023 total noted 300 pounds of trash and 100 pounds of recycling. Gregory offered, “We have been captaining this site with the City of Culver City for over 15 years at the Annual Coastal Clean Up Event, and truly look forward to this every year. Let’s hope that the statewide plastic bag ban [SB 1053, just signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom] becomes even stronger, and that the recent lawsuit against Exxon – because they lied to consumers about the recyclability of plastics – has a positive outcome for all of California’s watersheds.”
With current statistics going in a difficult direction, these legal moves could result in less trash in 2025.
Judith Martin-Straw
Photo credit – BCR
