About 1,500lbs of trash left on Central Coast beaches

A whole lot of plastic. That and plenty of other trash is what beach cleanup volunteers found Wednesday morning.

Following the 4 th of July holiday, 156 volunteers cleaned 13 beaches up and down the Central Coast. From Davenport Beach all the way down to Carmel Beach and everything in between, collecting 943 pounds of garbage and 452 pounds of recycling.

Across Santa Cruz County beaches, volunteers said in a one mile stretch of beach there’s about ten pounds of trash.

Those with Save Our Shores added that things could always be worse and were really relieved to see the community, city and county all work together to help keep trash off the beaches.

“What’s really cool is that a lot of locals and tourists were like, actively being aware of their trash and collecting their trash and picking up other people’s trash,” said Emma Chiaroni with Save Our Shores.

Trash prevention is also tough, according to Save Our Shore. To help reduce the mess left behind from the 4 th of July holiday, on Tuesday volunteers walked Del Monte Beach in Monterey, Main Beach and Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz handing out trash bags.