Gloves vs. grabbers, which tool actually gets more trash per hour?

I've been doing Saturday cleanups at Alki Beach for about a year now, and I keep going back and forth between heavy gloves and a grabber pole. With gloves I can pick up bottle caps and tiny plastic shards that a grabber just can't grip, but I end up squatting so much my back aches after 45 minutes. With a grabber I cover twice the distance along the shoreline, but I miss all the little bits buried in the sand that add up to more pounds overall. Last week I counted my haul with each tool on two separate trips, and the grabber got me 22 pounds in two hours while gloves got me 16 pounds but with way more microplastics. That makes me wonder if weight or thoroughness matters more to everyone else here. What do you all prioritize, total pounds or the small stuff that hurts wildlife in the long run?

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victor_adams951mo ago

Skip the grabber. Small stuff matters more than pounds.

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