SOUNDING OFF:The trashing of Thalia beach

I am a runner. I have been running on the beaches of Laguna for almost 30 years, and I can’t believe how dirty our beaches have become.

I run from Main Beach to Agate Street every morning. Each time I run, I pick up trash left behind by people or washed up on shore.

It is not unusual for me to fill three to four plastic bags (which I find on the beach) with trash.

Mind you, this is every morning. I find things like balloons, sandals, kids’ toys, all kinds of plastic items, T-shirts, underwear, beer bottles and so on. Each day I usually pick up at least 20 bottled water caps.

Most of the trash I find has been left behind by people too lazy to pick up their own trash and who don’t care about our beaches.

However, there is one beach I’m really concerned about ? Thalia St. Beach.

There is trash everywhere: in the sand, on the lifeguard tower, in the bushes; the plants have been purposely destroyed around a mural painted on the wall.

Most of the trash I pick up is within 10 feet of three trash cans!

Here is the bad part: This beach is not known as a “tourist” beach. It is frequented mostly by young people from Laguna and surfers.

I know that most of the surfers and young people are responsible and clean up after themselves, and that’s great. However, there are a certain few who couldn’t care less about what our beaches look like.

These few have turned Thalia Street into a trash dump. (I wonder what their rooms in their homes look like.) I would be ashamed to take anyone to Thalia to show them our beaches in Laguna.

If the people who do things like this only knew that if they started keeping their beach clean and asking their friends to do the same they would feel better about themselves and respected by their peers. Regardless, something must be done

So, I challenge the people who think it’s “cool” to destroy our beaches to put their trash in the containers and pick up one extra piece of trash. If you do this, you will be the “coolest,” and we will once again have a beautiful beach.