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Community Science-informed Local Policy: a Case Study in Pinole Creek Litter Assessment
Summary
This community science project assessed trash pollution in Pinole Creek, California, using volunteer data collection to support local policy changes. The findings are relevant to microplastic concerns because urban creek litter is a significant source of plastic debris that fragments into microplastics, eventually contaminating the water systems that communities depend on.
California is one of the only states actively managing trash in its rivers. Several community groups in the Pinole, CA and a scientist collaborated on a Thriving Earth Exchange community science project. Its purpose was to assess the trash in Pinole Creek and identify policy opportunities for the Pinole City Council. The key scientific questions were: how much trash was in the creek, what types of trash were most abundant, and where were areas of highest concern? The team enlisted additional community volunteers at in-person local events and local nonprofit listservs. We used a randomized sampling design and a community science adapted version of The Trash Monitoring Playbook, to survey the trash in the creek. We estimated there were 37 m 3 and 47,820 pieces of total trash in the creek channel with an average concentration of 2 m 3 per km 2697 pieces per kilometer. This gave the community an understanding of the scale of the problem and the resources needed to address it. Plastic and single-use trash were most abundant, and the community members expressed high concern about plastic single-use food packaging and tobacco-related waste. The community used the data to identify locations in the creek where trash was abundant and prioritize follow-up study locations. Seven new policies were recommended to the Pinole City Council. The City Council unanimously voted for the proposed policies to be reviewed by the Municipal Code Ad-Hoc Committee. And that is when community science turned to policy.
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