Ericka McGhee 4/22/26 - Huntington Beach (free choice)

 Last week, I went to Huntington Beach for the first time. The beach seemed nice at first, but the closer I got to the water, the more trash I saw. I was very disappointed about the amount of trash I saw, considering how many trash cans were around the beach. I spent a lot of my time there finding class, empty plastic water bottles, and old chip bags floating in the water and buried in the sand. Thankfully, the Surfrider Club at CNU is doing a beach cleanup at Huntington. I've spent my time at a lot of beaches around Virginia. There's always been trash around, and I always do my best to pick up the trash I can see around. This beach is very small, but the amount of trash on the beach is so much. Seeing how careless people can be about their trash makes me sad. Our beaches are for people to get outside, enjoy nature, and sit by the water. With this amount of trash, I was unable to sit and enjoy my time. I walked down the beach until I got to a certain point at the end, where there were at least 30 pieces of trash that had either been washed up or blown over. I feel as though if everyone spent at least 5 minutes picking up just some of the trash they see around the beach, it would make a huge difference. I know this is unrealistic, but if we keep littering and putting our trash wherever we want, soon these beaches and places of recreation will be nothing but a landfill. Hopefully, this beach cleanup will help the beach environment. Hopefully, seeing how clean the beach is, will influence people to keep it this way.

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