SEBASTIAN – While picking up someone else’s trash might not seem like the best way to spend a Saturday morning, a handful of Sebastian’s National Resources Board members and students organized an island clean up for one of the 41 islands in the Indian River Lagoon.
Soda cans, broken beer bottles and dirty toilet paper soil the ground of IR One. There’s also a dirty Port-a Potty in one spot and the remains of a leftover camp site in another.
“We’re picking up after mankind,” said Al Alvarez, a member of Sebastian’s Natural Resources Board. “I guess people get too involved in their own thing that they forget that other people want to use the same facilities they use.”
After 45 minutes on the island, the group bagged around 100 pounds of trash, which was separated into trash and recycling.
Mané Hernandez and Annabel Miller, students at Indian River Charter High School, worked at the clean up and felt that something was amiss with people who left garbage behind after an engaging night of drinking and storytelling.
“It’ll give us a job, but the animals are going to suffer as well,” Hernandez said. “You have to consider what you’re doing to the environment, especially since the environment is in such a crucial state.”
The Sebastian’s Natural Resources Board adopted IR One and does a quarterly clean up.
