Enjoy a beautiful sunset yoga experience at Namaste by the Bay, with proceeds supporting I Love A Clean San Diego! Join instructor and ILACSD Board member, Jamie Inn, for an all levels vinyasa class on the Bahia Resort Hotel’s stunning beachfront along Mission Bay. Paddleboards will also be available to rent for any yogis who want to take their practice out on the water! Please bring your own yoga mat.
Cap off the evening with a sunset cruise across the bay aboard the Bahia Belle (available on a first-come, first-served basis) with cocktails available for purchase. The cruise departs at 7:30 pm and returns at 9 pm. Yogis can also stay for cocktails at the bar or enjoy a walk along the hotel’s private beach.
The class and cruise are family-friendly and open to all ages! Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door and include a raffle ticket and the sunset cruise. Additional raffle tickets may be purchased for $5 each or five for $20.
All proceeds will benefit I Love A Clean San Diego.
Join ILACSD as we partner with the County of San Diego for a volunteer cleanup event of downtown Pine Valley following Pine Valley Days.
All supplies are provided, but help reduce waste by bringing your own reusable water bottle, bucket to collect litter and gardening or work gloves. Volunteers are advised to wear comfortable close toed shoes and sun protection.
All volunteers must sign a waiver regardless of age, and minors under the age of 18 require an additional parent or guardian signature on their waiver form. Save time in line and print yours in advance here.
Join ILACSD as we team up with Kashi to clean up Moonlight Beach in Encinitas on July 13! From 9 am to noon, volunteers will walk the beach, removing litter and debris from our local environment. Afterward, stick around to celebrate with another hour of fun, sun, music, and giveaway prizes! Kashi will have lots of fun freebies and prizes to award for our top trash collectors from the cleanup! Enjoy complimentary cereal, granola bars, protein bars, and some awesome swag!
ILACSD will provide all cleanup supplies. However, volunteers are encouraged to bring any reusable items they have such as water bottles, work gloves, and buckets. Practice zero waste habits and help cut back on the waste produced from single-use plastics at our cleanups by bringing reusable alternatives.
All volunteers must fill out a waiver form to participate and anyone under the age of 18 needs a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Save the date for one of our biggest cleanups of the year!
Join us on Saturday, April 27th, as we beautify more than 100 sites in San Diego County for the 17th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup! Last year, we had 6,464 volunteers came out to our 116 sites and successfully removed 145,622 pounds of litter and debris. Instead of turning a blind eye to the abundance of litter found across San Diego County, our volunteers channeled their passion into action for San Diego’s environment to protect and enhance it.
Contests available this year: Sony Photo Contest, Bling Your Bucket Contest (details to come).
Scout patches will also be available for any participating troops after the event.
San Diego Gas & Electric has been delivering San Diegans their power for almost 150 years. On top of their work providing around 45% clean energy to homes and businesses in this region – compared to an average of 8% nationwide – SDG&E supports many local nonprofits organizations that are working to improve the environment. This year, SDG&E and the San Diego Padres are Going to Bat for San Diego, and teaming up to support I Love A Clean San Diego and celebrate Coastal Cleanup Day.
ILACSD is proud to be part of the 2018 Going to Bat for San Diego Starting Lineup!
As a special thank you to volunteers that Go to Bat for San Diego, SDG&E and the Padres are recognizing Coastal Cleanup Day participants with a Volunteer Appreciation Night at the Padres game on Monday, September 17. Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers receive a promo code to purchase discounted tickets and be recognized for their accomplishments in keeping San Diego clean.
The 34th annual Coastal Cleanup Day will bring thousands of volunteers together on September 15th to beautify more than 100 beaches, parks, and other outdoor spaces throughout the region. Over the past 17 years, SDG&E has helped support I Love A Clean San Diego’s Coastal Cleanup Day efforts with the participation of thousands of employee volunteers! We are pleased to highlight two SDG&E heavy hitters who have stepped up to the plate to serve as site captains for Coastal Cleanup Day throughout the years.
Crystal Yousef
Crystal and her sidekick, Tipsie, at Coastal Cleanup Day 2013.
Crystal has been an SDG&E employee for 15 years and a Coastal Cleanup Day site captain for close to 10 years. She can always be counted on to go wherever there is a need, and Coastal Cleanup Day has led her on expeditions to Encanto, Poway, Golden Hill, and Rancho Bernardo, among other places.
In her day job, Crystal works at SDG&E’s Environmental Lab, which does environmental sampling and test analyses. The Lab is certified to test for more than 500 chemical compounds, ensuring that SDG&E facilities are operating safely.
In Crystal’s decade of service at Coastal Cleanup Day, she says her favorite part of the annual volunteer event is seeing kids’ enthusiasm when they find a strange piece of trash. Whether it’s a shoe, a stuffed animal, or even a bathroom scale, kids often burst with excitement recounting where and how they found it, and in some instances, even make up stories for what they think the item is. It’s like trash show-and-tell.
Crystal also notes that she feels a sense of pride each year when she arrives at Coastal Cleanup Day to a sea of Team SDG&E volunteers outfitted in team t-shirts, which for many years were the two-toned tie-dye in the photo to the left. SDG&E and I Love A Clean San Diego are lucky to have folks like Crystal committed to ensuring a safe and successful cleanup for volunteers of all ages! This year, you can find Crystal helping out at the South Shores cleanup site in Mission Bay with Team SDG&E.
Hilary Haskell
Hilary participating in the 2016 City Heights Facelift with Team SDG&E.
Hilary has been an environmental enthusiast from a young age. In fact, in high school she conducted regular beach cleanups, and in college she interned with another environmental nonprofit, Orange County Coastkeeper. Fun fact: during Hilary’s internship, she helped to plan Kids’ Ocean Day in Orange County, aerial art and all! That’s the sister event to ILACSD’s San Diego Kids’ Ocean Day that occurs every spring.
Hilary joined SDG&E a little over two years ago and jumped right in with Coastal Cleanup Day. Last year, she led the San Dieguito Lagoon site for SDG&E, and this year you’ll find her at the Paradise Creek site in National City. Aside from having a good attitude and strong leadership qualities, Hilary brings another attribute to her role as site captain…she knows a lot about the environment! At SDG&E, she makes sure projects like the placing of a new power pole, or even the removal of one, don’t result in a detrimental environmental impact. She’s also one of the company’s leading sustainability advisors, helping to track SDG&E’s environmental performance in key areas.
While Hilary hasn’t been a part of Team SDG&E for very long, we anticipate that her involvement in Coastal Cleanup Day will continue for many years to come!
ILACSD is grateful for SDG&E’s longtime partnership and the hands-on role team members take on to make sure we knock Coastal Cleanup Day out of the park!
Join I Love A Clean San Diego and the City of Chula Vista for an organics workshop on Saturday, September 29, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Memorial Park, adjacent to the Parkway Community Center located at 373 Park Way, Chula Vista, CA 91910. The event is completely FREE and open to the public.
Come by and learn how to keep organics out of the landfill by shopping smart, storing food properly, and composting your scraps. We will also cover water conservation topics, such as ocean-friendly gardens and laundry-to-landscape systems. There will also be hands-on activities and an eco-kids craft corner!
One of the best ways people choose to spend their holiday weekends is on the beach — especially in sunny San Diego. With Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day coming up, families and friends will flock to the coast to celebrate their long weekends. In response to the influx of locals and tourists, ILACSD and the San Diego Clean Beach Coalition (SDCBC) will place 200 temporary trash and recycling bins along some of the city’s busiest beaches to reduce the amount of beach and marine litter.
A Clean Beach Coalition recycling bins set out for the Fourth of July last summer!
Over the past decade, SDCBC has kept 3.5 million pounds of trash off the beach and out of the ocean. This past year, over 61,000 pounds of debris were collected during the summer holiday weekends. With the support of Think Blue San Diego, PB Shore Club, FreePB, and more, SDCBC aims to educate beachgoers about the benefits of swapping reusable alternatives for single-use products.
How can you make the most out of your holiday weekends while staying sustainable? SDCBC recommends that visitors bring hard plastic coolers, refillable water bottles, and food storage containers to reduce the amount of disposables items brought to the beach. Avoid bringing plastic straws and utensils! And make sure all recyclables are clean, dry, and empty. Spend less time worrying about your waste by visiting our zero waste database, WasteFreeSD.org, for everything you need to know about reusable options!
Summer can stay sustainable by simply packing reusable options when preparing to head to the beach!
In fact, your only worry while basking in the sun at the beach should be when to reapply sunscreen. That is why SDCBC’s goal is to ensure that the safety of the community and the ecosystem is not compromised by the impact of litter. With these easily accessible CBC bins, visitors are able to responsibly throw away and recycle their waste while still enjoying their vacations. Even at the most crowded beaches, people will still be able to enjoy the sun, sand, and the ocean in San Diego!
Not planning to hit the beach for the holidays? No worries! You can still party with a purpose while you celebrate this summer! A picture is all it takes to support ILACSD as the local Keep America Beautiful affiliate. With Absolut Vodka’s new Absolut America campaign, for every photo submitted through the site, $1 will be donated to Keep America Beautiful or another selected charity. After submitting your photo, you can share the decked out picture on social media to show how easy it is to support ILACSD and Keep America Beautiful all summer while you #PartyWithAPurpose with #AbsolutAmerica.
Support Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates by submitting a photo of how you party with a purpose to Absolut America!
With the Clean Beach Coalition and Absolut America, it is simple to #DoBeautifulThings. Just by recognizing the impact that waste has on water ecosystems, San Diegans are better prepared to act wisely when it comes to waste, especially during the summer holidays. For more information about the Clean Beach Coalition, make sure to visit CleanBeachCoalition.org.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Hotline Assistant, Barbara Lopez!
Many of us know that it is important to recycle used motor oil, but did you know that recycling the oil filter is just as important? One used oil filter contains about 10 ounces of used oil, even after draining, and therefore should not be thrown in the trash. By recycling your oil filter, you prevent used oil from entering our landfills, our water supply, and our environment. Also, recycling an oil filter keeps about one pound of reusable steel from going to the landfill. According to CalRecycle, if each oil filter sold in California was recycled, nearly 67 million pounds of steel would be diverted from landfills; that’s enough steel to build three large sports stadiums!
To encourage residents to recycle their old oil filters, the County of San Diego, Department of Public Works and I Love A Clean San Diego will be holding oil filter exchange events on March 23, 2013. Residents of the unincorporated county can visit one of the participating AutoZone locations, bring in a used filter and receive a new one free. In addition to oil filters, residents can also bring in up to five gallons of uncontaminated used motor oil to recycle.
If you are unable to attend these events, there are other options available to properly recycle used oil filters and motor oil. Some communities offer a free home pick up of used motor oil and filters. Also, there are nearly 300 Certified Used Oil Collection Centers in San Diego County that accept up to five gallons of uncontaminated used motor oil; many of these collection centers will also accept oil filters for recycling. If you have motor oil that is contaminated or more than five gallons of uncontaminated motor oil, visit a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility for proper disposal. To see if free home pick up of used motor oil is available in your community or to find a Certified Collection Center near you, visit WasteFreeSD.org.
Upcoming Oil Filter Exchange Events
All events will be held on Saturday March 23, 2013 from 10am-2pm. Limit one free filter per person. Free offer valid during specified date, time, and location.
Fallbrook AutoZone at 1081 S. Mission Ave., Fallbrook 92028
Lakeside
AutoZone at 12421 Woodside Ave., Lakeside 92040
Ramona
AutoZone at 370 Pala St., Ramona 92065
Spring Valley
AutoZone at 699 Sweetwater Rd., Spring Valley 91977
AutoZone at 9710 Campo Rd., Spring Valley 91978
To find out about additional recycling events, visit WasteFreeSD.org today!
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s newest Marketing Intern, Christina Etchebarren!
Hey there readers of this blog and fans of I Love A Clean San Diego! My name is Christina, I’m the new Marketing Intern here at ILACSD and I’m so excited to be joining the team and learning from the wonderful staff and volunteers. I am a fourth year Environmental Systems major at UC San Diego, originally from a small town outside of Portland, Oregon. Growing up I’ve always been surrounded by environmentally conscientious communities, so it was no surprise that learning about and protecting our environment has turned in to a passion of mine. Letting people know about what we’re up to at ILACSD is a part of my job description and my first assignment was to attend one of our education presentations at University City High School on Tuesday, Feb. 12th.
Arriving at the high school brought back a strange wave of nostalgia for my carefree, hormone charged, rebellious teenage days and I kind of felt like never leaving. I sat myself in the back row of a marine science classroom trying to blend in inconspicuously as the students noisily settled into their seats. Monica Rosquillas, who is one of our lovely educators, introduced herself and took control of the students attention with a quickness and ease that would impress the pants off of any HS teacher I’m sure; high schoolers can be some of the most difficult crowds to reign in and she did so with confidence that can only come from plenty of experience.
The presentation began with a lesson on the importance of water, which may seem obvious but sometimes all of us need a reminder about just how vital clean water is to not only our health, but the health of every living thing around us. The rest of the lesson plan was focused on watersheds, water quality and marine ecosystem health. Talking about environmental issues can be an extremely difficult task because you don’t want to come across as threatening or pessimistic and you don’t want present the problem as overwhelmingly large or beyond help, but you do want to make it seem important and urgent enough to motivate people to care and to take action. The presentation that I Love A Clean San Diego has put together walks the line quite gracefully, and I noticed that even from the back of the classroom, all of the students seemed to stay engaged throughout the entire duration of the talk.
Stomach contents from an Albatross include plastic caps, fishing line, and even a small wooden door knob.
Monica hit the message home by passing around a jar filled with contents from an Albatross’ stomach which included a pen and several other pieces of colorful plastic, I heard murmurs of horror coming from the pupils as they passed the jar around with disgust. To be honest, although I’ve gone through several years of environmental education throughout my time at UCSD, I learned a lot about watersheds and how important it is that we do our best to keep them clean.
All in all, I walked out of University City High School proud to be a part of such an amazing and inspiring organization and feeling hopeful for our future generations of environmental enthusiasts, and I look forward to the months ahead here at ILACSD.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Monica Rosquillas!
Last week, I gladly spent my Saturday with the high school students from the Elementary Institute of Science (EIS) stenciling storm drains in the neighborhood of Market Creek. The students at EIS are part of the Think Blue Brigade, a program by Think Blue San Diego that aims to connect high school students with storm water pollution prevention.
I arrived at EIS, stenciling kits in hand, and was met by a warm group of students and their enthusiastic advisor. Soon after, we walked out into the sunny streets of Market and Euclid, where we split up into 3 groups, each group stenciling “Don’t Dump Goes to Ocean” on 3 storm drains. While some tackled storm drains, others documented their progress, recording video and taking pictures for their end-of-the-year project.
The footage collected will be used in a video that will be showcased at the end of the year. The storm drain stenciling activity and video project fulfill 2 out of the 3 requirements of being part of the Think Blue Brigade. Having already completed the storm drain stenciling, this group of students will also participate in ILACSD’s signature cleanup event, the Creek to Bay Cleanup,held on April 27th of this year. Then, they will have until June to finish their video on storm water pollution and Green Transportation.
It’s very encouraging to work with a group of high school students, like these kids, who willingly give up their Saturday mornings to come out and do an event like this. As an educator at I Love A Clean San Diego, I go to high schools all over San Diego and teach kids about pollution. So when I see them do something about it, it feels great! Overall I had a great day spreading the message of storm water pollution prevention with this awesome group of students.
If you are a high school student interested in becoming involved with the Think Blue Brigade, please contact the education department by calling (619) 291-0103 or email me at mrosquillas@cleansd.org.
