Take Three for the Sea the next time you’re at the beach

I picked up trash when I walked down the beach in Galveston this week. Pam LeBlanc photo

Check out this photo: Two things I hate, and which I found in abundance during a morning stroll on the beach at Galveston Island this week.

Whoever dropped the straw didn’t even use it. It was still tucked inside its paper wrapper when I found it in the sand. And that plastic water bottle? I can think of only a very few instances that a reusable water bottle wouldn’t work just as well, or better.

I was staying at the DoubleTree (yay warm chocolate chip cookies!) on Seawall Boulevard and got up early to walk across the street enjoy the sunrise, which was lovely. I’d also just listened to an NPR report about recycling.

According to the network’s “Plastic Tide” series, the average American generates more than 250 pounds of plastic waste each year. Most of it isn’t recycled.

According to the organizers of the Take Three for the Sea movement (www.take3.org), only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic that has been made since the 1950s has been recycled, and an estimated 8 million tons of it washes into our oceans each year.

That spurred me to a tiny action.

Since I’m compulsive, I picked up a plastic bag (found on the beach) and filled it with trash that I found during my walk. Galveston Beach is pretty. I want it to stay that way. I hope you do too.