SLO County beaches brace for a busy weekend — and boatloads of trash

Call it an unforeseen consequence of coronavirus: There’s a lot more garbage floating around these days.

Disposable masks and gloves.

Single-use shopping bags. (Most stores no longer encourage reusable bags.)

Takeout food containers.

In heavily touristed areas, that can mean overflowing garbage cans and litter on streets, sidewalks and beaches — including dirty diapers, food containers, beer bottles, you name it. Ugh.

Pismo Beach was hit especially hard last weekend. “We saw an abuse of our community with the volume of trash left behind and overflowing from trash receptacles,” Pismo spokesman Jorge Garcia said via email.

The city is ramping up for the Memorial Day weekend.

“The city has deployed every trash can we have,” Garcia said, “and have acquired more because of the volume of trash and containers from takeout food.”

It’s also staffing up not only with more police officers on duty, but also public works employees who will keep the trash problem under control.

That’s good, because visitors are coming this weekend, in spite of San Luis Obispo County’s measure to discourage “leisure travel.”

Online booking sites showed several beach hotels are full for the weekend, and while the county has imposed a 50% cap on occupancy, that’s still a lot of people. On top of that, news that SLO County restaurants and shops are allowed to reopen may draw lots of day-trippers from neighboring counties.

So let’s face reality: Beaches and other popular tourist spots will be busy.

The focus, of course, will be on ensuring social distancing to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak.

But trash is a concern, too; not only does that garbage look and smell nasty, it’s also a health hazard.

Coronavirus can remain on some items for hours, or even days, and while the CDC recently updated its website to say that it’s not as easy to contract the virus from hard surfaces as initially thought, medical experts still urge caution.

Here are some examples of how long the virus can remain on various surfaces:

Plastics: 2 to 3 days

Cardboard: 24 hours

Aluminum cans: 2 to 8 hours

Glass: Up to 5 days.

It’s never OK to trash public spaces; it’s far worse during this COVID-19 crisis, when good hygiene is so critical to everyone’s well-being.

If you do plan a trip to the beach this three-day weekend — or anywhere else, for that matter — be careful, whether you’re from Fresno, or L.A., or Atascadero.

Consider this a trial period. If coronavirus cases spike after Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be back where we started from, or maybe even in worse shape. That could mean more drastic measures, like closing beaches.

So follow these guidelines:

• If you’re feeling sick, STAY HOME.
• Social distance; leave at least six feet between yourself and anyone who is not part of your group.
• Bring masks — they’re not required in San Luis Obispo County, except for in certain stores, but they’re highly recommended in situations where distancing is difficult.
• Wash your hands when you can, and carry hand sanitizer to use when you can’t.
• If you do shop or dine out, be patient. Remember, many businesses have been completely closed for weeks and may have lost staff. On top of that, they have several new requirements to follow to ensure the safety of customers and employees. So don’t expect perfect service.

And please, don’t be a slob. Throw those dirty diapers, hamburger wrappers and Coke cans where they belong — in the trash.

This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.