Nearly 1,400 lbs. of trash picked up at Lake Tahoe after July 4th holiday, a decrease from last year

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (KGO) -- Over the weekend, people spent time on Lake Tahoe giving back to the environment and picking up hundreds of pounds of trash after the July 4th holiday.

Hundreds of volunteers met up to participate in environmental nonprofit Keep Tahoe Blue's annual July 5th cleanup. It was the 12th year of the region's largest volunteer event, and this year, it showed positive results in the effort to keep the lake healthy.

It was a team effort of about 650 volunteers to clean up a total of 1,375 pounds of trash around Lake Tahoe after July 4th celebrations.

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People came from near and far to help in the effort.

Will Schutte has visited Tahoe frequently and decided to drive up from San Francisco to volunteer for the first time.

"I basically had a bag and a pick-up tong deal and I just scowered the beach and picked up lots of small plastic, lots of wrappers, bottle caps, some cigarette butts and that sort of thing," Schutte said.

Volunteers don't just collect litter, they collect data on what's found.

"That data helps contribute to solutions to prevent litter at its source by passing things like bans on single-use plastic bags and single-use plastic bottles," Chris Joseph with Keep Tahoe Blue said.

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Joseph says that's important because litter, specifically plastic, can do serious damage to the lake.

"And if those things are left on the beach, they don't ever decompose naturally. They degrade into smaller and smaller pieces, and that makes them much easier to get into the lake, where they're all but impossible to remove," Joseph said.

The good news this year was that there was 26% less litter found than last year, a big step forward in keeping this landmark beautiful and healthy for everyone to enjoy.

"I'm aware that Tahoe is enjoyed by something like 17 million people every year, and the only way it's ever going to keep blue and stay blue is by people being diligent about cleaning up after themselves," Schutte said. "It felt really good to be a part of that."

Keep Tahoe Blue also works to protect and restore the ecology of Lake Tahoe and and they advocate for environmental policies.