Pinole interns were able to come full circle with their work on the EPABIL project as they completed their second trash audit for the City of Pinole. These interns showed up ready to work, prepared for the tasks ahead. Over the past few weeks, Pinole Public Works staff had collected the contents of 10 different capture devices on two different occurrences. This meant that interns had 20 different bags of trash or debris to go through. For each bag, interns filled out a unique form on Survey123, noting the date the bag was collected, the location, and then labelled each individual piece of trash. The interns found that the bags were mostly full of leaves and other natural debris, which was a good indication that there wasn’t a ton of litter present. Interns made quick work of the 20 bags, itemizing each piece of trash and taking photos of the contents.
Overall, interns were glad to have a full-circle view of this project. Upon first glance, we were not able to tell if there was a difference in the amount or types of trash collected based on season, but possibly with future work it could be done. Thanks to our partners at EPABIL, City of Pinole, and the Participatory Science Network for making this happen.
