For the fourth Saturday in a row, Reclaim our Beaches (ROB) conducted an audit of the area around Broken Bridge, where the Adyar River meets the ocean. This time, we decided to survey the garbage in Zone 7, pictured below. Although the Zone seems rather expansive, our team of 13 located almost all of the items of trash and recorded their name and company efficiently.

The Zone, as seen above, wrapped around the dredges of the Adyar River. On the grassy area, there was an abundance of thermocol (almost all of the white in the picture). These chunks of styrofoam were scattered across the entire area.

Some of the thermacol was so embedded in the earth that there were plants and flowers sprouting from them. The eco-system had adapted to include this stretch polystyrene manufactured from petroleum, which, currently no microorganism can biodegrade, meaning that it will remain on our shores for eternity.

This particular piece was practically sprouting from the earth, and we had a bit of fun attempting to dislodge it.

There were many other fascinating discarded items along the shore, including  a perfectly intact light bulb, a hippo child’s toy, oil from the government, many toothpaste tubes, and more.

After observing everything on the grassy plains, we made our way over to the shores of the Adyar river. This zone actually contains one of the farthest parts of the river, which has become a collecting ground for much of the trash that is thrown in the Adyar river; it is filled with all types of trash (vegetables, plastic bottles, wrappers and more) and alive with insects crawling around.

Hiding in this massive pile were some remarkable items, like this helmet with barnacles growing all over it. We also liked the bag of Freedom Oil. Nearby, there was a skeleton of a spine! We speculated about what animal it could be: goat? dog?

The audit was very successful, and we discovered some very fascinating trash, from stuffed animals to real skeletons. But while examining the trash and searching for interesting items, we were also thinking about what we were actually doing and the significance of all the trash that we found. Just looking at the pile of garbage at the edge of the river, it is clear that there is a problem with littering. However, if all this trash was thrown in a dumpster would it be much better off? Is burning trash in an incinerator, releasing toxins and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide or burying it in a landfill where it would pollute our water, earth, and food and release methane better than having the trash remain on the beach? In order to reclaim our beaches, we must get to the root of the problem – why do we consume so much and why is the trash so difficult to dispose of sustainably?

Join us at Broken Bridge every Saturday at 4:30 to ponder these questions and find out what trash is hiding on the shores of the beach!

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