Coastal Cleanup Day

Coastal Cleanup Day is a local and international event held every September that helps keep our beaches and waterways clean.

Coastal Cleanup Volunteers! Take this brief survey to be entered into drawing for a $100 VISA gift certificate and coast-lovers prize package.

This year's results were fantastic with the highest volunteer turnout in years! There were about 1267 volunteers this year, 500 more than last year! 3840 pounds of trash and 1270 pounds of recycling were collected, for a total of 5110 pounds of debris! Creek Week and Project Clean Waterways Helped make this a fantastic year. The number of people is up and the weight of trash way down, which is the way we like it! More people caring about our beaches and less trash overall.

BYOBOB:

That's right! This clean up was Bring Your Own Bag or Bucket friendly! In fact, it was encouraged. Enough volunteers brought their own supplies to save over 500 bags! These bags will be used for more cleanups throughout the year! The less trash we generate for the event the better it is for the environment.

If you want to help keep our beaches, streams and ocean clean, please take a look at:

• Where did we clean? (Beaches by Area, Alphabetical Beach List)
• How can you volunteer early for next year (2011) ?
• How can you become a Beach or Creek Captain this or next year?
• Additional information from the California Coastal Commission and the Ocean Conservancy.
• Learn more about Last Year's Event.

Do you want to volunteer for next year?

If you are interested in volunteering, just you may email Jeffrey Simeon with your email address or contact information and he will make sure you get on our volunteer registry. Next year you will recieve information early about the event. The cleanup will be taking place on Sept. 17th next year.

Volunteers will be given gloves and plastic bags, and encouraged to work in teams. In addition, volunteers will be given a sheet that lists different items and materials and asked to mark the number of items and materials that are picked up.

If you are willing to go wherever we need volunteers please e-mail your name, contact information, the beach you would like to clean, the number of people participating and the group or company you are a part of to jsimeon(at)cosbpw.net. Make sure to put "Coastal Cleanup Day" somewhere in the subject.

Want to be a Beach or Creek Captain this or next year?

If you don't see your favorite beach listed and are interested in being a Beach Captain this or next year, please email with your beach information. Make sure to include the information asked for in the email. You must be eighteen or over to be a Beach Captain by yourself, though all ages are encouraged to be co-captains!

Alphabetical Site List:

Last Year's Event: 2009 Coastal Cleanup Day.

The County Public Works Department, Resource Recovery and Waste Management Division, coordinates this event for Santa Barbara County. On September 19th, 736 volunteers collected 4695 pounds of debris for California Coastal Cleanup Day in Santa Barbara County. Twenty five beaches and creeks were cleaner, but the event wasn't over. During the next week three more related events happened. Creek Week in the South Coast of Santa Barbara County and Project Clean Waterways in the North, and a dumpster cleanup of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians proved that creeks really need our attention. An additional 350 volunteers came out and collected 11,048 more pounds of debris!

The grand total: 862 volunteers and 15,743 pounds of debris!

Every volunteer is a hard worker, but three beach sites stood out for the amount of trash each volunteer collected.

One of our first Creek sites for Coastal Cleanup Day, Zanja De Cota Creek hosted by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians removed 581 pounds of debris from the creek on the reservation. The 25 volunteers that showed up there hauled out an impressive 23 pounds each.

Haskell's Beach had 16 volunteers, this time largely from the Bacara Resort. They managed to pick up 493 pounds of debris, or 31 pounds per person, including tires and lobster traps.

Most impressively, Tajiguas Beach also had only 16 volunteers from the Paradise Dive Club but collected 796 pounds of debris! That is a mighty 50 pounds per person and the most debris collected from any single site in this year's event!

Cigarette butts remained the most common item found. Among other trash items collected were numerous lobster traps, a small boat hull, an I.V. drip bag, a suitcase, a surfboard, and car tires.

Thank you to our volunteers and the sponsors of the event, The County of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, The California Coastal Commission, The Cities of Goleta, Santa Barbara and Solvang, California State Parks, Santa Barbara County Parks, Santa Barbara Channel Keeper, Allied Waste, MarBorg Industries, Waste Management, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Granite Construction Company, Twiin Productions, Bacara Resort, Ty Warner Sea Center, Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Santa Barbara Sailing Center, and more!

Sites we cleaned for Coastal Cleanup Day last year: