Four Tons of Trash Collected from Lake Tahoe after July Fourth Parties

The Fourth of July brings together millions of people across the United States for patriotic fun and obviously, parties can bring messes. But, after the 4th in Lake Tahoe, the site was said to be a “landfill.”

The parties held at Lake Tahoe for the Fourth of July resulted in a record breaking four tons of trash that surrounded the freshwater lake.

On Wednesday, environmental cleanup volunteers collected 8,559 pounds of plastic food wrappers, beach toys, beer boxes, cigarette butts, and more. This collection took place during the 10th annual July 5th “Keep Tahoe Red, White & Blue” Beach Cleanup.

It took 402 volunteers and three hours to rake up all the piles of trash and the Keep Tahoe Blue collective claimed it was “tragically an all-time high.”

“This morning, one of Tahoe’s beaches looked like a landfill. Thanks to passionate volunteers and community partners, it started to look like Tahoe again after some hard work,” said Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

“To Keep Tahoe Blue, everyone who enjoys this place must act more like our volunteers and partners by doing their part. It starts with leaving nothing behind and picking up any trash you come across. Unless each of us share in the responsibility for protecting this place, it could be ruined.”

According to the cleanup, more than 6,300 pounds of waste was collected from Zephyr Cove, an unmanaged stretch of beach on Lake Tahoe’s east shore.

“It was destroyed,” said Colin West, Clean Up the Lake founder. He added that the trash haul collected from the site was the worst he had seen in his five years of environmental cleanup work.

“I thought I’d come out and use a trash grabber, but I was bending over scooping with my hands, and we even went to get rakes.” West added.

The good news is many of Lake Tahoe’s beaches were left practically litter free. Those beaches were supplied with trash cans, restrooms, and management staff.

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