More than 200 pounds of trash collected from Lake Tahoe in Labor Day cleanup
LAKE TAHOE — While many people spent their Labor Day at Lake Tahoe, dozens of volunteers spent the morning helping to clean it up.
Keep Tahoe Blue held its 10th annual Labor Day Cleanup on Monday, drawing out 63 volunteers to Kings Beach.
"I don't like litter. I love the lake so I want to give back. I want to provide an example for my students," volunteer Pete Fairley said.
Fairley is a high school teacher and has been volunteering with Keep Tahoe Blue clean-up events for the past 4-5 years.
"Everything goes downhill and up here in the basin, runoff will carry whatever garbage there if left on the streets, down into the lake. It'll break up into smaller pieces and end up in the water," Fairley said.
During this year's cleanup, Keep Tahoe Blue said they collected:
- 231 pounds of litter.
- 991 cigarette butts.
- 323 plastic food wrappers.
- 280 plastic straws/stir sticks/straw wrappers.
- 614 other plastic pieces.
Keep Tahoe Blue said they are happy with this outcome, as they said it's a better result than last year and points to the trend of better beach stewardship this summer.
"What can happen is, especially plastics, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces in the sun and plastics don't biodegrade," said Marilee Movius, senior community engagement manager for the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
Movius said that because of this, it's important to remove the trash before it makes its way down to the lake.
"It's been awesome to see families that are visiting, making it a part of their vacation and also volunteers that are local, all to collectively to keep Tahoe blue," he said.
Volunteers also helped clean the downtown area and small groups went to Moon Dunes and North Tahoe.
Fairley said that if you're not convinced yet, the reason you should volunteer is very simple.
"Because I don't have enough hands. If there are more hands, they are going to make a bigger difference and keep this garbage out of the lake," Fairley said.
More information on future Keep Tahoe Blue clean-ups and events can be found by clicking here.