The 42^nd annual California Coastal Cleanup Day will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2026 from 9am to noon. Various cleanup sites will be hosted throughout the County, so choose your favorite or the one closest to you! Visit Explore Ecology’s Coastal Cleanup Day webpage for more information. Each site will have a captain able to provide instructions and supplies.

During last year’s Coastal Cleanup Day, approximately 3,611 pounds of litter were removed from our beaches and waterways! We encourage you to join your fellow Californians and spend this Saturday morning giving back to the oceans, beaches, and creeks that make this County such a beautiful place to live.

Sites are hosted across the County from Carpinteria to Santa Maria, and from Santa Ynez all the way out to the Channel Islands! Pre-registration is not required, but is encouraged. Specific meeting and parking information for each of the cleanup sites, as well as the link to register can be found at the website below.

Information on site locations, FAQs, and how to support debris-free beaches year-round can be found on Explore Ecology’s Coastal Cleanup Day webpage.

What to Bring

Each site will have a captain on hand to provide necessary instructions and supplies. We encourage volunteers to bring their own gloves, buckets, and other reusable cleanup supplies to lessen the plastic footprint of this event. Go the extra mile and BYO-BOB (see below)!

Just like any clean-up event, it's a good idea to wear closed-toed shoes, bring your own reusable water bottle, and wear sunscreen and other sun protection like hats or sunglasses.

BYO-BOB

We encourage you to Bring Your Own Bag Or Bucket. Reusable gloves are welcome too.

Previous volunteer efforts have saved as many as 500 bags in one day, which could then be used for other clean-ups throughout the year. The less trash we generate for the event, the better it is for the environment. Read more about the effort on the Coastal Commission's website.

Age Requirements and Youth Volunteers

We welcome all ages at Coastal Cleanup Day. Most of our sites are appropriate for children, but if you see a location that requires lots of walking make sure it will still be suitable for your little ones. We require a responsible adult to sign for any child under 18.

Community Service Credits

Beach captains have been authorized to sign your community service paperwork. Bring the appropriate forms and come help out!

Questions

If you have any questions about this year's event, please send an e-mail to Explore Ecology.

If you can’t make the cleanup on the 19th, we encourage you to clean up any time during the month of September and your cleanup data will be included as part of Coastal Cleanup Day! CleanSwell is the official app for Coastal Cleanup Day and was developed by OceanConservancy.org. Once in the app, please turn on location services, write in Explore Ecology as your group name, and hit “Start Collecting” when you start any cleanup throughout the month of September for your collection data to count towards Explore Ecology’s Coastal Cleanup Day numbers! This data goes towards Ocean Conservancy’s global ocean trash database to deliver a global snapshot of ocean trash, providing researchers and policy-makers insight to inform solutions.

In Santa Barbara County, Coastal Cleanup Day is brought to you by the County of Santa Barbara Resource Recovery and Waste Management and our partner Explore Ecology, with support from the Cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Solvang. The California Coastal Commission organizes the statewide event and the international event is organized by the Ocean Conservancy.

Be sure to Like Coastal Cleanup Day on Facebook and Instagram to get event updates.

Thank you, and we'll see you at the beach