Cleaning up the streets

A few years back, Chip McDermott noticed a growing problem in Laguna Beach. The population was swelling and summer visitors were filling the city as well.

Yet while more people were coming to Laguna, the amount of trash cans stayed the same. Tired of seeing trash on the streets and sidewalks, McDermott decided to do something about it.

McDermott founded Zero Trash Laguna, which is essentially his one-man crusade to eliminate trash from Laguna’s streets.

“I find trash despicable, and I don’t understand why people just step over it,” McDermott said.

Zero Trash Laguna is now spreading the anti-garbage message and getting Laguna residents involved in trash prevention with monthly First Saturday Adopt Your Street Clean-ups.

Volunteers meet at the Brooks Street beachhead at 8 a.m. and sections of streets are divided up. The volunteers get trash bags and gloves for a morning of trash pick-up. McDermott also provides doughnuts so the volunteers aren’t left cleaning the streets hungry.

“They seem to like that,” McDermott said.

Saturday will be the third of these monthly clean-ups and McDermott said he expects them to grow month by month. The whole goal is to raise awareness and create a grassroots effort to stop trash on the streets. He hopes the first Saturday of each month simply becomes synonymous with trash removal.

“If everyone sees it’s a movement, that’s our goal,” McDermott said.

While there are many beach clean-ups in Laguna each year, Zero Trash focuses on the streets.

“People are locked into this beach clean-up mentality,” McDermott said.

While McDermott appreciates beach clean-ups, he points out that trash can be stopped before it reaches the beach if the trash is eliminated in the first place.

But the clean-ups are only one of a multipronged trash elimination plan.

McDermott has partnered with businesses and brokered agreements to clear their storefronts of trash when they open. They agree to clean all the way to the street and even the gutters.

The hope is that Zero Trash can partner with the city to provide stickers to these businesses for their windows to recognize their contribution to stopping pollution.

Zero Trash Laguna also aims to get more trash cans on Laguna’s streets. The theory is more trash cans equals less trash on streets and sidewalks.

“The city has not provided enough trash infrastructure for this kind of population growth,” McDermott said.

In the last year, 10 new public new public receptacles have been put on the street.

McDermott said in the next six months there will be another 20 on the street. About half will be thrash cans with ashtrays for cigarette butts. The other 10 will actually be three-tiered affairs with a place for regular trash, a place for recyclables as well as an ashtray.

The trash cans are joint efforts between the city, Zero Trash, and Waste Management — which is paying for the new cans. McDermott received an additional $3,000 grant from Waste Management to continue his efforts. To learn more about Zero Trash Laguna, visit www.zerotrashlaguna.org.