According to Sausolito’s Marine Mammal Center,  ocean trash kills more than a million seabirds,10,000 marine mammals and turtles each year. 80% of the trash in the ocean comes from the land. 90% of the trash in the ocean is plastic.

On a two-hour walk through Griffith Park, I picked up a lot of trash including those maddening, elusive plastic shopping bags that (thank God) will soon be banned in Los Angeles, those “creepy, flimsy” bags  and that often drift and dance just beyond one’s grasp.

I’ve always been a fan of lists in literature and I found making the list of the trash I picked up to be strangely addictive:

1 Starbucks clear drink lid

1 Milky Way wrapper

1 weathered Scientology ad

1 bright new ad for electronic cigarettes

1 running shoe tongue

1 empty cellophane bag

2 empty clean-up-after-your-dog bags

7 thin plastic shopping bags

1 foam plate

1 glass bottle

1 plastic fork

2 plastic drinking cups

2 plastic caps

7 crushed paper towels

1 ad for the Hollywood Bowl Summer 2013

1 crumpled but still cheerful yard sale sign

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