This year’s Coastal Cleanup Day saw 38 simultaneous trash cleanups occur across inland and coastal Orange County on Saturday, September 21.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – On Saturday, September 21, 4,760 volunteers cleaned up Orange County beaches, waterways, and parks, preventing 31,589 pounds of trash from reaching the ocean. These astonishing numbers are a result of 38 simultaneous events that happened across inland and coastal Orange County.
Local organizations and agencies host each cleanup site with support from Orange County Coastkeeper (Coastkeeper), the Orange County regional coordinator for California Coastal Cleanup Day (CCCD). This statewide event, sponsored by the California Coastal Commission, brings people together each year to clean the state’s creeks, rivers, lakes, coast, and shorelines to help restore the environment. Now in its 40th year, CCCD has grown into California’s largest annual volunteer effort.
Cleanup events give volunteers the chance to remove trash in their communities before it can be swept out into the ocean. Research shows that most marine debris comes from land-based pollution. Every year, CCCD takes place in late September, just in time for volunteers to help clean up the state before the traditional wet winter season.
“We’re all connected to the ocean and play an important role in protecting it,” said Matt Sylvester, communications director at Orange County Coastkeeper. “Today, thousands of Orange County residents showed up on behalf of our coastline. Events like Coastal Cleanup Day make a big difference in reducing pollution that threatens our fragile marine environments. We hope these passionate volunteers will join us again to support policies that keep trash from entering our waters in the first place.”
As the regional coordinator for Orange County, Coastkeeper helps distribute supplies, register volunteers, and promote each cleanup site. In addition to assisting cleanup sites, Coastkeeper hosts its own cleanup event at Huntington State Beach. In just three hours, 275 volunteers removed 231 pounds of trash from the Huntington Beach coastline. Coastkeeper’s cleanup also featured a live DJ and sustainability fair where volunteers could learn more about how they can make eco-positive changes in their lives.
For a full list and map of every cleanup site from Orange County’s Coastal Cleanup Day, please visit https://www.coastkeeper.org/cleanup-day/.
MOST UNUSUAL TRASH SEEN AT CLEANUPS
- Moped
- Bin containing yearbooks from the 1940’s
- Slingshot
- Motorcycle motor
- Car battery
- Shopping carts
- Mattresses
- Christmas gnome
- Video camera
- Vape
