About Coastal Cleanup Day
I Love A Clean San Diego has served as the official organizer of Coastal Cleanup Day in San Diego County since it was founded in 1985. The event is a major part of International Coastal Cleanup, which is facilitated by The Ocean Conservancy and includes many U.S. states and territories, and over 70 countries. In California, data is reported to the California Coastal Commission as part of the international cleanup efforts. You are joining hundreds of thousands of volunteers all over the world to remove pollution from our ecosystems!
Since 1985, there have been nearly 270,000 volunteers with over 5 million pounds of litter and debris removed.
Report Your Data
Coastal Cleanup Day is unique in that it is not only a countywide cleanup effort in San Diego but it is part of an even large worldwide cleanup called International Coastal Cleanup Day! Volunteers all around the world are working for organizations (just like I Love A Clean San Diego) who then submit the data collected to the Ocean Conservancy. They compel all of this data into the largest marine debris database in existence. That information is used to help educate policy markers locally and globally! This data is key to implementing important habit changes, educating our county residents, and influencing policy changes. The location you clean up and litter totals you report will be shared on our website to track collective cleanup totals, all day long, countywide! Thank you for being citizen scientists!
At I Love A Clean San Diego, you will see our dedicated site captains totaling all the information their individual volunteers gathered. We will update our website to reflect how much litter you all removed from our watersheds in just one day!
FAQ's
When: Saturday, September 17, 2022 from 9 AM – 12 PM
Registration opens September 1 and at that time you will be able to see all the sites available across San Diego County.
Once registration opens you create a profile on our Community Hub and then you can pick any one of the locations you would like!
As you register for the cleanup on the Community Hub, you can (1) create a new group or (2) select an existing group (from a past event).
You can register on behalf of your group and list the # of volunteers you expect; this makes you the point of communication and you can relay information you get from us to your group members. This option is great for smaller groups with an advisor like scout troops and student clubs. You can also register your group for the cleanup and list the # of “invites” you would like; this creates a unique URL for your group sign-up that you can send to your group members to sign themselves up under your group “umbrella”. This option is great for larger groups where everyone can be responsible for receiving information from us, like a church congregation or a corporate team.
Coastal Cleanup Day is a great event for the whole family. Kids are welcome to participate; volunteering at a young age can instill community stewardship for life!
A guardian will have to create an account to register a child for an event, they can register as a group and include them as a member count (a “group” is a general term that can include a family, a team, or any type of group you can think of at any size – including just 2 people).
To make this as sustainable as possible, try to use your own reusable supplies from around the house – items like litter buckets, litter grabbers, gardening gloves, and reusable water bottles.
You may want to bring snacks and cleanup-ready clothing like closed-toed shoes and a big hat. Check out this Supply Guide to repurpose what you have around your house.
You can feel prepared with gloves, closed-toed shoes, a hat, and sunscreen. If you are going to be volunteering in a canyon, we recommend long pants and long-sleeved shirts (but keep in mind it is September in San Diego!).
This event does qualify for Community Service Hours (at all sites) and it does qualify for Court Ordered hours (at sites with a staff member only).
In order to receive volunteer hours, service forms and Letters of Appreciation – volunteers will need to be:
- Registered for the event through I Love A Clean San Diego’s Community Hub
- Participate in the cleanup
- Capture a photo of your active participation in the cleanup
- Log your volunteer hours post cleanup through your profile on the Community Hub.
Volunteers who are registered for the cleanup are eligible to request community service verification and Letters of Appreciation. To request volunteer hours verification – follow this guide to Log Your hours and complete the logbook survey to request community service forms.
Join Us
H2OM will be in Ocean Beach Location as a volunteer and providing special prizes to the first 50 Registrants who sign up through H2OM. At this participating location only! More details to follow....