Environment

Trash And Lots Of Syringes Picked Up At San Diego County Cleanup

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published April 26, 2010 at 9:16 AM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Volunteers pick up trash around San Diego Bay during the Creek to Bay Cleanup event on April 24, 2010.

Trash and Lots Of Syringes Picked Up At San Diego County Cleanup

Volunteers collected thousands of pounds of trash in the Creek to Bay Cleanup over the weekend in San Diego County. But an unusual number of syringes were also picked up at the countywide cleanup.

More than 4,500 volunteers filled dumpsters with thousands of pounds of trash and weeds, planted 40 trees and stenciled 54 storm drains.

They also collected the one-millionth pound of trash in the eight years of the cleanup.

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But volunteers picked up an especially high number of syringes at some locations.

Vance Sharp with I Love A Clean San Diego says syringes were banned from landfills in 2008.

And he says there's no reason the needles should be tossed in the trash.

"I think most of the issue is based on education and just getting the knowledge out that there are places where people can dispose of their needles in every municipality in San Diego," said Vance.

He says there are drop-off sites throughout San Diego County.

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Used needles can injure people and spread germs and serious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tetanus.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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