Coast Lines: Attempting Green

I can’t say that I’ve been the most environmentally aware person.

That’s not to say that I go out and try to destroy the environment, but I can’t think of any causes that I’ve gotten heavily behind that will help save mother earth.

I don’t litter wherever I go and I make my best attempts at recycling, but I haven’t gone all out in changing my lifestyle.

Recently, my job at Patch brought me out to Blackthorn Park by the Skyway to do an organized cleanup with Keep Pinellas Beautiful. My fellow Patch editors and myself got out to the park with bags in hand and green t-shirts and attempted to pick up the park.

While we managed to pick up a lot of trash (including some very interesting items), it really didn’t feel like we made that huge of dent in the mess at the park. Inevitably, a lot of the work we did would be negated by the day-to-day activities from other people at the park.

I decided that I wanted to make a change in how I operated as a human being and be more actively involved.

When I thought about how I could help out, I decided the best and most efficient way would be to implement an activity with my pre-existing schedule.

My job takes me out on the sand much of the time. There are many times my day consists of different beaches that I need to head to for photographs or stories. This is where I decided I could best help.

I loaded my car up with a box of garbage bags and am grabbing one every time that I need to head out to the water. Once I finish with whatever story I’m doing, I pull out the garbage bag and do a walk down the beach. Normally I pay for way too much time in the meters so it’s not costing me anything extra.

While I’ve only had the chance to this a couple times thus far, I like it. I’m really getting the sense that I’m actually helping out a bit in the community. Since I’m doing it on a regular basis, it really feels like the little bit I do makes an impact.

While I know what I’m doing isn’t much in the larger scheme of things, It’s better to do something small than nothing at all.

I’m truly happy about the people who are very proactive and eco-aware and hopefully I can be more like that. For now though, I can add in my contribution and actually help keep our beaches beautiful.