One day Dan and I walked among the logs east from Sutherland Stairs filling up our grain bags. When they were full we turned back, walking along the water line. We thought we had cleaned this stretch of beach, but no—more debris was arriving on the tide, and we plucked it directly from the water: shoes, plastic bottle caps, wrappers, tampon dispensers. It was my “aha” moment. Human detritus, much of it plastic, is from everywhere. We are all implicated. I had just seen the 2019 film The Story of Plastic, and reflected on the truth of what one person said in it: “Clean up is really just a great way to see how bad the problem is—it’s not the solution.”
More styrofoam leaving the beaches of Savary Island, BC
Moving large debris from the beach is often about pure willpower.