Having counted only 5 volunteers at the last cleanup, I was very surprised to greet a big group from Fremont as early as 8.45 am when I pulled up at my site to unload my car. From then on, even more volunteers arrived. We counted a total of 48 volunteers including groups from UCSF, Rakuten, Davita, and Skyline College. We picked up 137 lbs of trash and 45 lbs of recyclables. Everything was wet and muddy due to recent rain storms, and more rain was forecast for that Saturday, yet it was beautiful and dry for the entire cleanup and so apprehensive groups were not disappointed. There appeared to be unusually fewer cigarettes collected in 3 Ziploc bags, equivalent to 750 butts, when usually there are 5 or more bags of butts collected each cleanup.

This cleanup was the first one where I have shipped oceanic rigid plastic trash to Terracycle who are able to accept it in a less than clean state, and they recycle it into other new plastic items. For examples of oceanic trash, see the gray bread tray and red pipe in the photo. Thanks to Joe Recto for cutting up all the oceanic plastics so that I could fit them into a cardboard box for shipping. Thanks to Chris Burr for taking our recycling to the Daly City recycling center. Thanks to Julie Walters for putting out signs and storing them in her garage. After the cleanup, I washed out all the buckets as they were very muddy inside, and while I was cleaning them out, it became clear to me that we probably picked up less trash and cigarette butts because of the amazing rain storms we have experienced in February keeping people away from our area! Alleluia!