For the past 40 years, thousands of people have fanned out across beaches, lakes, streams and parks every September for California’s Coastal Cleanup Day — the state’s largest annual volunteer event.
They have picked up litter to help improve the environment, protect wildlife and spend a few hours outdoors with family and friends. But this Saturday, on the event’s 41st year, there will be a new incentive: Prizes. Good ones, actually.
In an effort to increase participation, which dropped during the COVID pandemic and has yet to fully recover, the California Coastal Commission will offer some impressive prizes hidden in small 4-inch wooden chests at cleanup sites around the state. More than 20 vouchers can be exchanged for such rewards as $1,000 in cash, two nights at the Sonoma Mission Inn and Fairmont San Francisco luxury hotels, an e-bike, San Francisco Giants tickets, an inflatable kayak, $100 gift cards, and the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at an A’s game.
“We are turning it into the world’s largest scavenger hunt,” said Eben Schwartz, marine debris program manager at the California Coastal Commission, which oversees the event. “There’s a lot of excitement about it.”
The prizes were donated by various large corporations, including Wells Fargo, Fairmont, the San Francisco Giants, the A’s, Oracle, Door Dash, Aquarium of the Pacific and others.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. To sign up, go to coastalcleanupday.org
The cleanup isn’t just limited beaches along the ocean. Volunteers for years have cleaned up creeks, rivers, lakes, and other inland areas. For the first time, all 58 of California’s counties will participate, after groups in Trinity County (population 15,000) organized a cleanup this year along the Trinity River near Weaverville, about 70 miles south of the Oregon border.
Since 1985 when the statewide event began, it has been a rite of fall. More than 1.8 million volunteers have picked up more than 27 million pounds of debris across California. This year there are more than 700 cleanup sites.
Major agencies, like the East Bay Regional Park District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District are cleaning up multiple sites.
Volunteers are asked to bring gloves and a bucket to the site they choose. If they aren’t able to bring either, the site coordinator, often part of a parks department or non-profit group, provides them. Everyone tallies up what is picked up. After 40 years the data has shown numerous trends.
In general, California’s beaches and waterways have gotten cleaner over the past 40 years.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, volunteers picked up an average of 18 pounds of litter per person. Last year it was 8.5 pounds. Some of that is due to monthly cleanups that non-profit groups do on their own throughout the year.
But recent changes in California laws also have affected the type of litter found on beaches, Schwartz said.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning smoking on state beaches and state parks, with a fine of up to $25 per violation. Cigarette butts, nearly always the top item found each year by number, declined to 22% of the total amount of trash picked up last year — 82,895 butts — down from 394,920 in 2009, when they made up 37% of all trash collected.
Plastic bags have shown a similar drop since former Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law in 2014 banning single-use plastic grocery bags in an attempt to reduce litter and ocean pollution. Voters upheld the law two years later, rejecting a challenge from the plastic bag industry.
The result? In 2009, plastic grocery bags made up 8.7% of the pieces of litter found in California during Coastal Cleanup Day. Last year, they totaled just 1.6%.
“If anyone ever tells you plastic bag bans don’t work this proves them wrong,” Schwartz said. “It’s a huge success story. There has been a steady drop.”
The event is still bouncing back from the COVID pandemic. In 2019, the year before COVID hit, 74,410 people volunteered. During COVID in 2020, only 19,730 people did, without organized group events. That number grew to 47,493 by last year.
Schwartz said he expects 50,000 or more will join this Saturday.
Funny items turn up every year.
“Last year, we found an old ThighMaster at Point Isabel in Richmond,” said Jessica Sloan, volunteer program supervisor, with the East Bay Regional Park District. “It was half-hidden in the mud, with a few barnacles on it. But it still worked. People were trying it out.”
Sloan said East Bay Parks, which will have 11 cleanup locations this year, typically receives about 2,000 volunteers. Last year they hauled away 8,000 pounds of trash and cleaned 12 miles of shoreline in three hours.
“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s an incredible way to give back. Every piece of trash that we pick up is cleaning habitat for wildlife and making the parks better for our community.”
On the Peninsula, a non-profit group, the Pacific Beach Coalition, will oversee cleanups at 15 locations from Daly City to Half Moon Bay, and including Foster City.
The organization purchased $10 gift cards from coffee shops and other local businesses to hide as prizes. Lynn Adams, president of the coalition, said it’s important to remove trash before the first big rains of winter wash it into the ocean. Prizes help make the morning fun, she added.
“The beach cleanups are kind of like a wild hunt anyway,” said Adams, a former school teacher. “This makes it more of a game. It’s fun to go out with your family, and to know you are not the only ones who care. A lot of people care. It feels good to do something positive and to be with other people who are doing something positive.”