Click on the words above “Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit – Berkeley” to see this entire post
The images below are a small selection of the images I have recorded over the past three years in Berkeley that show the huge problem of municipal trash. Much, though not all of this trash originates at homeless camps around Berkeley. Much of this debris is plastic and ends up in San Francisco Bay.
Since 2009 I have collected nearly 7 tons of trash off the beaches of West Marin and from Tomales Bay.
Each winter I collect a few dozen, sometimes more, dirty syringes that have washed up on the beaches of Point Reyes National Seashore, including but not limited to Limantour, Drakes, South, North, Kehoe and McClures beaches.
Since 2016 I have been visiting Lake Merritt and other locations in and around the western edges of Richmond, Albany, Berkeley and Oakland in search of the source of these needles.
I’ve collected thousands of needles from in and around the homeless camps in these communities. I’ve also learned that needle exchanges are not actually exchanges. For example, The Berkeley Needle Exchange will hand out 600 needles to anyone that asks, with no need to turn in a single dirty needle. I believe this is wrong and is responsible for the horrid amount of syringe litter that blights our cities and waterways.
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Click on an image to see a larger version.
Codornices Creek – Border between Albany and Berkeley near Interstate 80
Gilman at 80
SeaBreeze / University camps area at 80
Ashby Beach – where Ashby intersect West Frontage at SF Bay
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