It’s a Wrap. The Results are in, and YOU Made the Difference!

If you were near any of our beaches or local waterways on Saturday, September 21, you may have noticed a lot of people walking around, but they weren’t your average beach-goers with beach bags. They were dedicated volunteers with trash bags joining together to clean up our local beaches and waterways as part of the 35^th annual California Coastal and 23^rd annual Inner-coastal and Watershed Cleanup Days. The turnout across California was remarkable with over 60,000 volunteers* participating in the event. That’s as many as a full day’s average attendance at the 2019 OC Fair!

Are you curious to know how YOU, the Orange County community, made a difference in the day’s success? Here are just a few of the day’s highlights covering some of the coastal and inland sites.

Imagine looking out your front door and seeing 3 elephants made of trash walk by. That’s equivalent to the 21 tons of trash that over 6,000 volunteers picked up from local waterways along the Orange County coast and 23 inner-coastal sites. That’s a lot of trash and a lot of volunteers!

Final counts from the days’ efforts are still trickling in from the numerous events held throughout Orange County. Some of the more compelling results so far included efforts from both North and South Orange County. At the Lower Santa Ana River site in North Orange County, 50 volunteers joined forces with OC Public Works and the Surfrider Foundation to pull an estimated 1,455 pounds of trash from the channel before it reached Newport Beach and Huntington Beach! Watch the video of the day’s event to see the impact. Meanwhile, at the San Juan Creek site in South Orange County, 11 volunteers removed 335 pounds of trash before it reached Doheny State Beach.

The success of the City of Brea’s event was not only measured by the 700 pounds of trash removed, but also by the number of volunteer groups who came forward to participate. The numerous volunteer groups included: American Society of Engineers Cal State Fullerton, Hermosa Drive Fullerton Elementary School, Westfall Technik, Niagara Bottling Employees, Boy Scout Troop 1201 and Girl Scout Troop 9004/9084, just to name a few.

While the impact of this one-day event is huge, there are things we can do EVERY day to prevent stormwater pollution and protect the quality of our local waterways. Visit our blog How Does Trash End Up in the Ocean for more information.

Thank you to everyone in the Orange County community who contributed to this massive cleanup effort! Coastal and Inner Coastal Cleanup Day is always the third Saturday in September and we hope to see you in 2020! But, if you can’t wait until then to join in on the fun, visit our events calendar to find ongoing cleanups near you!