I’ll be tweeting live updates from the Louisiana coast all this week. You can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/michaelwhitney (hashtag: #bpdisaster)

Alaska professor Rick Steiner explained that there are two kinds of booms: one absorbent, one non-absorbent. The absorbent type are thrown away after use, but the non-absorbent ones should be cleaned and reused. “The booms being placed in the dumpster in this photo are containment booms, which should be cleaned and reused, not thrown away,” said Steiner.

I pull into a parking space and Ivan and I talk about what to do. I turn my head and watch two National Guard members pull up their golf cart to a green dumpster. They unload big, orange oil booms one by one from the back of the cart, and throw them into the dumpster.