League to Save Lake Tahoe provides tools for the Sept. 21 cleanup day. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

While the 57 volunteers who participated in the Sept. 21 Great Sierra River Cleanup at Zephyr Cove picked up 128.75 pounds of trash and 10 pounds of recyclables, this did not include the rusted box springs, barbed wire and other metal my group of four could not haul out.

Aramark, the operators of Zephyr Cove Resort, was notified about it.

However, the 15 pound piece of scrap metal I located was counted in the haul.

Kae Reed with her 15-pound piece of metal.

I also found a cardboard container with the plastic film container in it. I didn’t open that because I didn’t want to know if a roll of film or something else was in it. I just tossed it into my bag. The Christmas decoration was an usual find as well. How did it get there?

It was disconcerting to see all the tiny pieces of trash that could have ended up in Lake Tahoe. We really can do better, people.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe sponsored the Tahoe event, which is part of the greater statewide annual cleanup day run by the California Coastal Commission.

How did this tinsel-laden decoration end up in a bush at Zephyr Cove? (Image: Kathryn Reed)

One thing I really liked that was new to me compared to other times I’ve participated in this event is that canvas totes were used to collect the debris we found instead of plastic bags. Only logical since plastic of any kind is one of the biggest problems.

From the beach, parking lots, trails and Highway 50 frontage 56 plastic straws/stirrers, 49 plastic bags, and 348 tiny plastic/foam pieces less than 2.5 cm were collected.

Too heavy and awkward to carry, this box spring was left for the property managers to properly discard. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

A separate container was used to collect cigarette butts because the filters can be repurposed into pellets that can become park benches, picnic tables, shipping pallets, bike racks and even cigarette recycling receptacles.

According the Coastal Commission, with 60 percent of the cleanup sites reporting, 28,751 volunteers picked up 242,312 pounds of trash and 12,461 pounds of recyclable materials, which equates to a total of 127 tons.

The most unusual item: In Los Angeles County, a volunteer found cashier’s checks worth $68,000.