Today’s blog post comes from our wonderful Marketing Intern and cleanup expert, Bri Lobato!
This past beautiful fall morning in San Diego, we came together with Karl Strauss to host a cleanup along the Rose Canyon bike paths and surrounding San Clemente Canyon. Tucked between an active railroad and the I-5 freeway, it offers pleasant views of Rose Canyon’s coastal sage and chaparral-covered hills. It is a car-free space to exercise and unwind without the dangers and sounds of road traffic. San Diego is a very hilly region of Southern California, so during and after rainfall events trash and debris collect in canyons such as this one. Not only does this cause an eyesore for anyone using the paths, but eventually the collected debris is bound to reach storm drains and our ocean.
Community members of all ages were invited to help clean up and join a fun mixer at the new Karl Strauss tasting room (planted just about a football field away from the start of the off- road bike path) directly following. 21+ volunteers were given a voucher for a free brew immediately following the cleanup, and able to choose from their 20-tap array of options! The most impactful and fun cleanups bring people together. The outdoor patio suddenly became a place where everyone was talking about the crazy items they found, sharing information on how they like to stay involved in the community, and enjoying a cold one while they were at it!
The results! Thanks to our 134 volunteers who cleaned up 750 pounds of trash and 158 pounds of recycling!
134 volunteers, 908 pounds of trash and recyclables taken care of, 1 HUGE difference was made! A huge thank you to ecoATM for sponsoring the event and bringing out lots of helpful individuals, and big thanks to all of the families, cyclists, and other San Diegans who took a couple hours out of their Saturday to participate! We hope to pair up with more of San Diego’s breweries in the future for cleanups such as this one.
Interested in volunteering for an event? Check out our upcoming volunteer projects!
Today’s blog post comes from our new marketing intern, Bri Lobato. Bri is currently studying environmental science and loves cheese enchiladas and English Bulldogs. We’re thrilled to have her helping out at ILACSD!
As of September 21st, San Diego is free of 75 tons of debris thanks to each and every one of our 7,500 volunteers this year at I Love A Clean San Diego’s Coastal Cleanup Day! Families, friends, students, sponsors, locals, visitors, and even some loyal pets took some time out of their Saturday morning to help keep San Diego beautiful, and everyone involved made this event more successful than ever. Across a record breaking 102 sites in San Diego County, volunteers of all ages came out to give back to the city they love by picking up litter, participating in service projects, and storm drain stenciling.
Volunteers cleaning up Chollas Creek near Gompers Park
Kickoff started at 9am at the Gompers Park site where 250+ volunteers heard from Supervisor Greg Cox, Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Myrtle Cole, as well as I Love A Clean San Diego’s very own Executive Director, Pauline Martinson, to get them fired up before going out into the neighborhood and local creek to hunt for waste. News crews were there to capture their influential words about why events like Coastal Cleanup Day are important to both the environment and the community. Volunteers at this site were able to choose among creek cleanup, mulching, invasive plant removal, painting a mural made of tire scraps, trail building and stenciling storm drains, so everyone was able to take part in their own way. No matter the task, every volunteer across the County was given a free Chipotle coupon as a reward for their efforts…and who doesn’t love Chipotle!? When 75 tons of trash is involved, you bet there were some unusual and interesting items we heard about: bowling balls, a rooster, a steering wheel, and even a sweet female pit bull puppy were recovered! (She has been rescued and is on the road to recovery). There was also a “Bling Your Bucket” contest, where kids decorated their own reusable litter hauling bucket.
We found bowling balls! Some of ILACSD’s staff managed to shot put these guys into the dumpster“Bling Your Bucket” contest entrants, each doing their part to “make this world happier”
Shout out to our site captains who were instrumental in making the event run smoothly and effectively. BIG thanks to our sponsors San Diego Gas & Electric, the Country of San Diego, Think Blue San Diego and MANY more for making Coastal Cleanup Day an event that so much of the community could participate in and enjoy! A very special big thank you goes to all of the volunteers who made Coastal Cleanup Day worthwhile, and who made a difference by taking part in the largest volunteer event that San Diego County has to offer. It wouldn’t be possible without you guys! We will see you all next year for CCD 2014!!
Today’s blog post comes from ILACSD’s Director of Development & Marketing, and beach lover, Morgan Justice-Black.
Were you one of the many who braved the traffic and parking struggles to hit the beach over Memorial Day weekend? Well, if you happened to be along Mission Bay, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach, you probably saw these big cardboard bins on the sand.
Memorial Day at Belmont Shores, before…
I Love A Clean San Diego and FreePB.org worked together again this year to order hundreds of temporary trash and recycle bins for the big beach holidays over the summer. This year is the first year that we were able to place the bins in time for Memorial Day weekend, and man were they popular!
Memorial Day at Belmont Shores- after!
The City of San Diego Parks & Recreation Department provides major help in this endeavor, both placing the bins and removing them, and hauling all of the trash to the landfill. They also calculate how many tons of debris the bins collected. Thanks to the efforts of these bins, we avoid handing out beachside next to images like this…
To make sure that these bins are durable enough to stand up to the crowds (and the sometimes inclement weather), the bins are double-walled for strength. The cost for these bins certainly adds up. Thankfully this year, we had great support from Think Blue San Diego, Pacific Beach Shore Club, Typhoon Saloon, car2go, SeaWorld and many other sponsors who are recognized on the bins.
If your Fourth of July plans involve a little beach action in PB, MB or OB, make sure you tell your friends that the bins are out there for you to use. As the Clean Beach Coalition motto states, Enjoy the Scene, But Keep it Clean!
Adam enjoying the ocean air on his home, the Betty Jean
The main focus of Coastal Cleanup Day is picking up trash on our beaches, along local creeks and rivers, and in local canyons. But what about the trash that’s already in the water? This year we’re attacking that water-logged trash as well. Adam Hopps joins us for his first Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 15th, as the volunteer Site Captain at our Shelter Island cleanup site.
Partnering with the Silver Gate Yacht Club, Adam hopes to get local boaters involved in cleaning up areas of our waterways that aren’t accessible by foot. Using grabbers and nets, these sea lovers will cleanup trash that is already floating in the water and even use tools to absorb oil that’s floating on top of the water. But enough from us, we’ll let Adam tell you more about it…
What motivated you to volunteer as a Site Captain for Coastal Cleanup Day?
I live on a sailboat in a marina on Shelter Island. Every day I witness the effects of litter and water pollution on our Bay. On a daily basis I see trash (usually plastic bottles and bags) floating on the surface of the water in and around in the marinas, in the Bay and out in the ocean. In the marinas it’s especially bad during low tide when trash has been brought in with the tide and becomes trapped in the shallow areas and in the sand – only accessible from a water craft.
Coastal Cleanup Day is California’s largest volunteer event focused on the marine environment but up until this point boaters haven’t been extremely involved in this event. When I was approached by ILACSD to coordinate a joint land and on-the-water cleanup site, I was thrilled at the idea of engaging boaters to make a difference in our own backyards as well as expanding the reach and environmental impact of this Cleanup.
How long have you been volunteering with ILACSD?
This is my first event and I’m excited to be partnering with the Silver Gate Yacht Club who will host the meet up location.
Why is that site important to you?
Living on a boat in San Diego is a blessed life. We have a dynamic marine & aquatic community, a gorgeous Bay to sail in and beautiful weather year round. It’s really hard to see the Bay tarnished with trash and oil. Even though approximately 80% of marine debris comes from inland communities, many of it makes its way into the open water which beach cleanup volunteers simply cannot access. The boating community is a natural fit for Coastal Cleanup Day because we have access to those areas from our boats, dinghies, kayaks and docks. Also, for the first time, we’re supplying on-the-water volunteers with oil absorbent sheets to use on surface level oil slicks.
We’re immensely lucky to have a magnificent natural resource like the San Diego Bay to call home and need to do our part to conserve and protect it.
What are you most looking forward to at Coastal Cleanup Day?
I’m looking forward to seeing a bunch of great people come together for a common goal. I think it’s inspiring. Also, it wouldn’t be a boater event if it wasn’t followed by a dock party!
Why do you think events like Coastal Cleanup Day are important to keeping San Diego healthy and clean?
Well, not only are tons of trash and debris collected and removed from our greatest natural areas, but the people involved become more and more aware of the harmful effects of litter and pollution and band together to make a difference. Volunteers tend to get their own families and friends involved which is why this event seems to grow every year!
What is the strangest piece of trash you’ve found out on the water?
I can’t speak for CCD, but we’ll pull trash out of the water when we’re sailing in the ocean and we’ve found half a dozen birthday helium balloons over the years.
Have you registered to volunteer at Coastal Cleanup Day yet? Click here and sign up for any of the over 85 cleanup sites across
San Diego County!
I Love A Clean San Diego and other local nonprofits are at it again, hoping to make this summer the cleanest on record at some of our most popular beach destinations. As hundreds of thousands of people look to descend on local beaches this summer, I Love A Clean San Diego, FreePB,org, and Surfrider Foundation are working hard to make sure the beaches don’t bear the brunt of what thousands of people leave behind…trash! As part of the Clean Beach Coalition, our organizations work together to remind our community to be aware of the amount of trash they make, and also place temporary trash and recycling bins at the most popular beaches during popular holidays like the 4th of July.
Even with the added trash and recycling bins, inevitably some trash still ends up on the sand. If you’re sick of your favorite beach getting trashed, you can do something about it by volunteering at the Morning After Mess, scheduled for Thursday, July 5th at 9am! ILACSD will be hosting our cleanup site at Belmont Park in Mission Beach. Contact Jemma De Leon at jdeleon@cleansd.org or 619-704-2778 if you are interest in participating or have any event questions.
Our thanks go out to the sponsors who helped make this year’s campaign a reality!
Think Blue – City of San Diego Stormwater & Transporation Department
Pacific Beach Shore Club
Lahaina’s
Keep California Beautiful
Car2go
Vavi
ClifBar
BarWest
Paradise Point Resort & Spa.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Director of Development and Marketing, Morgan Justice-Black!
A few years ago, I Love A Clean San Diego heard about a program being launched by our national affiliate, Keep America Beautiful. The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, although in its infancy, seemed like a great addition to our program arsenal. Anyone who has participated in one of our cleanups knows that cigarette butts are far and away the most common item picked up. It’s a painstaking process, bending over and picking them up one by one. While removing cigarette litter is good, preventing it is even better. So that’s what we set out to do.
In collaboration with the San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, we are implementing three new CLPP programs this summer. The areas targeted for ash can installation include: Oceanside, North Park, and La Mesa. Prior to placing the ash cans, our volunteers do litter scans to find the areas that have the most cigarette litter. Then, ash cans are installed, and the cigarette litter collection begins. Typically, after about a month, volunteers will do a post installation litter scan to see how many butts still make it onto the ground. One lucky volunteer has the dubious task of counting each cigarette butt in all the ash cans to see how many are collected during the first few months. In some cases, we’ve been able to collect upwards of 2,500 butts in a single month!
We are excited to expand this already successful program. The three new areas we are reaching join Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla and Point Loma where ash cans were installed in previous years. We estimate these ashcans have prevented over 30,000 cigarette butts from littering our local environment each year.
Kevin, winner of our Creek to Bay Volunteers in Action Photo Contest, shows just a handful of the butts picked up at one cleanup location.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing Intern and USD student, Maddy Blake. Updated 5/3/2012 with new totals!
ILACSD’s Staff ready for the big day!
I Love A Clean San Diego celebrated its 10th annual Creek to Bay Cleanup this past Saturday, April 28th. An amazing 5,800 San Diegans joined together across the county to preserve and beautify their local environment. This year also marks the San Diego Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, over 1200 of scouts took part in the cleanup to show their commitment to the environment and witness the effects that pollution has on their communities.
Volunteers separated trash and recyclables.
Thanks to all of these fantastic volunteers, San Diego is a much cleaner county. In fact, more than 150,000 pounds of trash and debris were removed from local parks, canyons, creeks, bays and beaches in the span of just three hours! As in years past, cigarette butts and plastic bags were among the most common items found, but this year, some of the most interesting items our volunteers picked up were a rocking horse, a bowling pin and a five-gallon container of pickles.
Daisy scouts pitch in at Creek to Bay.
With a total of 88 cleanup sites, the most we’ve ever had for Creek to Bay, there was somewhere for everyone to go and something for everyone to do. This year, cleanup events were held at five brand new sites in communities we hadn’t reached yet:
Paradise Hills – 40 volunteers filled an entire roll-away dumpster of debris
Spring Valley – 49 volunteers collected over 260 pounds of debris
Santa Ysabel – 20 volunteers removed 200 pounds of debris
Banker’s Hill – 49 volunteers removed 250 pounds of debris
University Heights – 32 volunteers can boast removing 1,200 pounds of debris
You read that right, at the site known as Camelot Canyon (the area beside the 163 at the Vermont St. bridge in University Heights), volunteers picked up 1,200 pounds of debris in that three hour timeframe and unfortunately there is more work to be done in that area. The site was brought to our attention by local University Heights resident, Alison Whitney, who bikes past the canyon on her way to work everyday. With the help of CalTrans and ILACSD, Alison organized this cleanup to make this corner of her community a little more enjoyable for local residents. Click here to read Alison’s interview with KPBS.
Just a sample of some of the debris picked up.
While about 40% of this year’s cleanup sites were in coastal areas, cleaning up inland sites like Camelot Canyon ensures that the trash will not travel down the watershed systemand end up in our waterways, bays and the ocean. Furthermore, by expanding into the five new sites, an additional 2,000 pounds of debris were removed from the environment! After ten years, I Love A Clean San Diego still dedicates itself to county-wide programs and expanding its reach even farther to preserve and ensure a healthier San Diego for everyone.
Volunteers painting over graffiti near Fashion Valley Mall.
Picking up trash is not the only activity our volunteers participated in – many sites included other beautification projects such as graffiti removal, mural painting, native planting, brush maintenance and other general park maintenance.
Don’t forget – if you joined us at Creek to Bay this year, remember to submit your favorite photo to ILACSD for our Sony Volunteers In Action photo contest! Photos are due on May 4, 2012, then the top 3 photos will be posted on our Facebook page, where our fans will vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced on May 18th! Click here for more details.
We want to thank ALL of the volunteers who took time out of their weekend to do more with their morning at the 10th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup! We’d like to give a special thank you to the following volunteer groups who came out to show their love for a clean San Diego:
Local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Helping Hands Service Day
In the winter of 2010, San Diego CoastKeeper and I Love A Clean San Diego partnered together to start a new project called Trash Trackers. One year later, the results are in!
Trash Trackers began as a program to document our impact on the environment, and see how cleanups help in the long run. During the study, volunteers counted each piece of trash within a one-hundred foot stretch next to a local stream or creek. They cleaned the entire area and documented how many pieces, and what types, of trash they found. One year later, volunteers combed the same one-hundred foot stretch in order to find out how much more trash had accumulated within that time period due to either upstream accumulation or littering directly on site.
Thousands of Styrofoam pieces along the Otay River
So what did we find?
Each of our four sites – Otay River, San Diego River, Buena Vista Creek, and Chollas Creek – showed drastic decreases in the number of items found at the second cleanup. Whereas Otay River showed a 14.5% decrease, the San Diego River showed 63% less, Buena Vista Creek showed 68% less and Chollas Creek documented an amazing 74% less!
One area of Chollas Creek before cleanup
Even the biohazardous material was down an average of 27% at all of the sites.
Thanks to 700 volunteers over the last two years, this program removed 18,400 pounds of debris that otherwise may have ended up in our oceans. By removing this trash every year, we have direct evidence that our cleanup events not only remove debris from the immediate site, but they also help to ensure that in the future, the creeks are cleaner for everyone’s enjoyment.
"The Pit" along the San Diego River by Fashion Valley Mall
Here at I Love A Clean San Diego, we are dedicated to keeping our community clean! The implementation of the Trash Trackers program allows us to collect hard data that reveal the problems that ensue from littering in waterways. We hope that our actions and the photos above inspire individuals to take responsibly for their local environment and get involved in in preventing litter around our community. After all, don’t we all love a clean San Diego?
All of us at I Love A Clean San Diego are excited to embark on a new program called Trash Trackers this winter. We are extremely pleased with the tone and the results from the program’s kickoff last week. Our Community Events Department coordinated with a small group of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers that were motivated and ready to get out there and get really dirty to protect their environment. The group tracked types of trash found in a particularly trash-ridden section of the Otay River in Chula Vista. Whether these volunteers were painstakingly picking up thousands of small pieces of Styrofoam cups and pellets or removing large auto parts from the river, they took great pride and care in marking each item on trash tracker sheets.
Volunteers exhibiting such gusto are a true inspiration to all of us! Those of us who attended the event were thrilled to get to spend more time cleaning up alongside each of these volunteers through this smaller scale cleanup program that is unlike any other ILACSD program.
Not only did we get to work with a fantastic group of volunteers and remove thousands of pieces of trash, we also were able to collect data on the type and source of trash found in this targeted impaired waterway. At ILACSD we hope to inspire behavior change through all that this program provides – hard data and event photos that show the direct problems caused by litter building in our waterways. See for yourself in photos included from the event. We hope that the shocking sheer volume of Styrofoam and other plastics found at this site will inspire our volunteers and readers to always be mindful of the impact daily habits have on the environment here in San Diego County.
