Paper or plastic is almost no longer in question this spring. Whether you’re buying organic produce in the local supermarket or cruising through a home improvement store hosting a vast variety of LED light bulbs and water-saving faucets, earth-friendly signs are everywhere but the days could still be greener.
The environmental movement that began in the 1960s and 70s has made a popular go-green comeback that should have plenty of volunteers ready for Wednesday, April 22, a day commonly-known for going outside to plant trees and pick up trash.
Staff photo by Joshua Curry
Kevin Murphy co-owner of Indo Jax Surf School will give away a custom shaped SOD surfboard donated by Shawn O'Donnell. The board is the grand prize for Indo Jax's 90 Days to ’09 Earth Day trash pickup challenge to be held at the Oceanic Pier at 4 p.m., April 22. |
Earth Day officially began in 1970, but it was due to growing eco-activism, community push, and volunteering in the 60s long before that that the holiday got its start.
It comes at a time when we should be reminded enough to take care of the earth’s beauty by its buds transforming into colorful full bloom and there are many small and easy ways to leave a smaller footprint on the earth. Walk or ride a bike instead of driving, take a shorter shower, bring your own bag to the grocery store, reuse old containers, recycle tin cans, plastics, and paper, pick up trash after someone else, start a compost pile instead of throwing old food away, get involved with programs throughout the community or start your own.
After Kevin Murphy, director of Indo Jax Surf and Kiteboard School and fifth-grade teacher, became troubled over all of the trash left along the shores of Wrightsville and Carolina beaches he decided to do something to raise awareness and to challenge students. Using WBLiveSurf and his own surf school’s Web site he issued a challenge to students of the community. The Trash Collection Challenge began January 22 and ends on April 22, Earth Day. The challenge has its benefits. Any student who can collect more trash than Murphy will win a free week of instruction at Indo Jax Surf School and a custom SOD surf board grand prize. Many other prizes will be also be awarded.
After about 75 days on the challenge, Murphy has already collected more than 200 bags of trash, mainly from the Cape Fear River region. Murphy knows of 15 to 20 contestants who are actively cleaning up and is hoping for more to show for the Beach Sweep on the last day.
Students entering the contest must keep track of the trash they’ve collected using photos of where they are cleaning and the trash they’ve picked up and are responsible for a report to be used in the judging process.
Murphy said he sees trash while teaching at his surf school and tries to educate both surf students and his fifth-graders about the waste he sees everyday while walking his dog by the water and the harmful effects it has on marine life.
“There was so much of it I couldn’t take it anymore. I picked up on my own but I thought if I started getting kids out there and getting a little bit more active into it maybe they would take some ownership in the areas that they use. I use the ocean everyday for surfing and I thought I needed to give back to it.”
Even with all of the green-friendly products of today, it is still easy to use more than we need and throw away any excess. Plastic bags, six-pack plastic rings, and other trash have always been a problem to our coast and we all know there are many marine critters who suffer from our waste. Murphy said there was one incident in particular that made him decide to host the challenge.
“A lot of it had to do with the whale that washed up at Oak Island and nobody seemed to care or really pay attention to the amount of pollution that we put into the water and I wanted to bring the attention out to everybody.”
In connection with the challenge is the Earth Day Beach Sweep in Wrightsville Beach where more collecting will take place and the grand prize winner will be announced. The first 60 volunteers to show will receive a free reusable grocery bag. All volunteers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags to collect. Murphy observed that about 90 percent of all litter is recyclable and for this reason he will have both trash and recycle bins ready for the offerings.
