Trash from the former Mussel Rock Landfill in Daly City, CA is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The site, which operated from 1957–1978, received thousands of tons of garbage coming from residents of Pacifica and Daly City. Today, the coastline continues to bear the weight of that history — and it’s heavy. Engineers estimate there’s 1.4 million cubic yards of garbage buried next to the beach, enough to fill roughly 140,000 dump trucks, according to the article.

Read the full article (or listen to the audio version), reflect on the history, and join us in moving forward toward a cleaner and healthier coast.

Plastics are forever

A team from the Pacific Beach Coalition, including President Lynn Adams, Director Patrick Cavanaugh, and Lead Naturalist Julie Walters, met with environmental news reporter, Paul Rogers, to survey the site and discuss the implications it will have on future generations.

Still to this day, relics from the past are uncovered on the beach and washed out to sea. Plastic and other trash never truly go away. While we can’t change poor waste management solutions from the past, we can all do our part to make more eco-conscious decisions especially when it comes to purchasing everyday items that are sustainable and plastic-free. We can also change our habits such as picking up trash before it ends up in the ocean and understanding which items are actually recyclable.

What we’re doing to help

It’s true that long-term solutions are costly and difficult. PBC supports nature-based solutions and green infrastructure to transform the landfill site to what once was. Until then, we’re committed to taking action at our monthly Mussel Rock beach cleanups and our new habitat restoration site, the Mussel Rock Coastal Gardens. We’ll continue to steward this community ecosystem and use this historic landfill story as a powerful reminder of lessons learned. The choices we make today impact our ocean and wildlife for generations.