Time to get real. How often do you walk by garbage without picking it up? Clearly you might not be as equipped and proficient as Chad Pregracke and his Living Lands and Waters Crew but you can certainly pick up a fast food wrapper from the sidewalk and toss it in a nearby can, right? What about chucking a gum wrapper out of your car window? We’ve all done that. Sure, it’s just one wrapper. Or how about “hey, it’s biodegradable.” Well, it’s garbage, plain and simple. And what was once your garbage has now become everyone’s garbage.
According to the EPA every American creates on average 4.4 pounds of trash everyday. That’s close to 29 pounds a week. Clearly we’re not all dumping that out our windows but if you watched what the RIVER WARRIORS haul in on an average day you might not be so sure.
The bottom line is that there’s a lot of trash out there that needs picking up. Obviously the hot zone right now is the Gulf region of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Clean up crews are scouring the beaches scooping up those vile clumps of oil. This is extremely hard and dangerous work especially when you’re outfitted in hazmat suits in a 90 degree swelter. If you’re up to the challenge, you can become a volunteer and be properly trained to work a clean up crew. The key words there are properly trained. This isn’t something you should consider as a weekend project for you and the kids. This is serious business.
In fact there are four distinct training levels for the Gulf Coast clean-up:
Level 1 (Basic HSE Training) – This person would be a volunteer who would never come in contact with spilled oil (helping with beach cleanup, for example)
Level 2 (Contractors and Paraprofessionals) – This person would be a contractor who will be conducting work at the staging site Level 2 has a BP safety procedure that has to be instructed by someone who has been trained by BP or PEC Premier.
Level 3 (Wildlife Recovery and Rehabilitation) – This person would be a trained Wildlife Recovery & Rehabilitation volunteer, who will be helping with the clean-up of wildlife. It is a graded certification course. OSHA reviewed the Level 3 training package from PEC Premier and give special support for BP to use this training package, specifically for this incident.
Level 4 – Responders who might have direct contact to petroleum (this would include boat captains and crew who are already contracted to BP). Those who are not contracted must work through the Vessel of Opportunity program. Safety, Marine and Hazwoper training is delivered if their vessel is selected to be contracted through that program.
You can find out more about the where, what, when and who to contact at the Deepwater Horizon Response website.
As much as we might want to, we can’t all head to the Gulf but that doesn’t mean we can’t be cleaning up elsewhere. It’s a pretty safe bet that somewhere this coming weekend or the next, a group of dedicated volunteers are getting together to pitch in and do a little garbage pick up. You can start with the Volunteer info site sponsored by the government.
One upcoming project is the annual Yosemite Facelift weekend. This is where a group of Yosemite National Park enthusists get together to remove the tons of garbage left behind in the park every year. Stay with that fact a moment: tons of garbage left behind at our national park. Okay, deep cleansing breath. We’ll point fingers later. Right now, let’s think about picking up the garbage. Start with the next wrapper you come across and see where that takes you.
And yes, if you get on a clean up crew we want all the details! By all means send us the before and after pics.
— Meyer
