Microscopic trash is polluting Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake and other local waterways. It’s contaminating our waterways, endangering wildlife and aquatic species, and our health.
For the last month, Tahoe Weekly has been highlighting the impacts of litter in the Tahoe Sierra, which has become exponentially worse by the overwhelming numbers of people in the region this summer.
In the fourth installment of our series, Priya Hutner looks at our tiniest trash – microplastics. Whether it’s caused by trash breaking down over time or the tiny plastics used to make synthetic clothing, it’s polluting our waters. The impacts on humans are still not understood, say researchers, but it’s in Lake Tahoe, it’s on our beaches, and research shows that it could be falling with the rain and snow, or found in drinking water. Read the first three parts of our series at TheTahoeWeekly.com.
The Tahoe Sierra has been inundated with people this summer escaping to Tahoe for a respite from COVID quarantines at home to visit our small, mountain community. With them they have brought more trash at local beaches, parks and trails and to our towns. Locals are overwhelmed and frustrated by the lack of respect for our community, the filth that has been wrought upon our neighborhoods, the danger to wildlife litter brings and now to Lake Tahoe itself.
The famed waters of Tahoe are one of the may draws for our tourist-based economy, yet we are all endangering it’s clarity and our economy by littering. From the plastic bottle left on the beach, to the cigarette butts carelessly tossed on the ground, even to the synthetic sports apparel that is so popular with our adventure-loving local population that produce microplastics. The cycle of litter seems to never end.
It’s imperative that we all do our part to help address our litter crisis. Pack out all trash from beaches, parks and trails. Pick up after your dog and dispose of it in the trash (those biodegradable bags produce microplastics, too). Pick up litter when you see it. Join a local litter cleanup. Use a restroom, not a neighborhood bush, to do your business and pack out your toilet paper. (If you must go in the outdoors, read our feature “Pooping in the Woods” at TheTahoeWeekly.com.) Educate your friends, family and neighbors about the dangers of litter – from microplastics, to health concerns, to water quality to endangering wildlife to cigarette butts that can cause wildfires.
And, talk to local officials and urge them to take action – to add more litter pickups and more trash receptables; to educate visitors and locals; to increase trash services for day visitors and dispersed campers; and to build public restrooms in town centers, at all beaches and parks and at busy trailheads, including at our multiuse paths.
Tahoe Slab donation giveaway
Our Donation Giveaway to win a custom table from Tahoe Slab continues until Oct. 5. Tahoe Slab is creating a custom, handcrafted 24” x 48” English walnut and Tahoe Blue epoxy coffee table for our giveaway. The table is valued at more than $2,000 and supporters will be entered into the giveaway with every $20 donation to Tahoe Weekly until Oct. 5. We will hold a random drawing on Oct. 5. Enter by donating at paypal.me/TahoeWeekly.
Follow this progress of the table’s creation by following Tahoe Slab @tahoeslabfurniture on Facebook and @tahoeslab on Instagram.
