GET READY FOR A NEW WAY TO DO COASTAL CLEANUP DAY Solano County’s largest volunteer event to take place in September

Solano County, CA  This year, cleaning California’s coast will start at our own front doors. Solano County and its partners are proud to announce that the 12^th Annual Solano County Coastal Cleanup will take place throughout the entire month of September, with an emphasis on each Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon. Solano County residents will help clean their communities and the coast by sweeping through their own neighborhoods and local natural places, helping to prevent single-use plastic items and other litter from polluting the environment and flowing into the ocean.

Solano County residents continue to show they care deeply about the environment and their communities by supporting Coastal Cleanup year after year. Since the county’s Coastal Cleanup program started in 2008, more than 27 thousand Solano County volunteers have removed 456 thousand pounds of trash and recyclable debris from local waterways, parks, and trails. Last year alone, nearly 2,200 volunteers cleared more than 26 thousand pounds of debris – all in a matter of hours.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Coastal Cleanup organizers recognized that hosting traditional cleanup sites with large gatherings of volunteers would not be safe this year. However, Solano County residents can honor the spirit and intention of the cleanup while staying close to home and following public health guidelines. Trash in the streets will become beach and ocean pollution once the rains begin, and cleaning neighborhoods and local natural areas provides a valuable service to the coast and our communities alike.

“While we may not be able to gather at the cleanup sites our volunteers have taken such good care of this past decade, we can still have a positive impact in our communities and the environment,” shared Narcisa Untal, Senior Planner with the Solano County Department of Resource Management. “A community effort like Coastal Cleanup might be exactly what we all need right now.”

Solano County volunteers are asked to begin by registering on the Cleanup Solano website, cleanupsolano.org. By registering, Coastal Cleanup organizers can share pertinent information with volunteers and keep track of their impact. In addition to registering, volunteers are encouraged to download and use the CleanSwell mobile app or print the Trash Collection Data Cards, both of which are accessible on the Cleanup Solano website. The collected trash data is crucial for informing policy decisions like California’s historic plastic bag and straw bans and hold big polluters accountable.

Complete guidelines for conducting a neighborhood cleanup, along with other resources to help plan and prepare, are available on cleanupsolano.org. Please check the website for updates and share your cleanup experience on social media using the hashtags #CoastalCleanup and #KeepSolanoClean. Follow local cleanup efforts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using the handle @cleanupsolano.

Solano Resource Conservation District coordinates the annual Solano County Coastal Cleanup Day in partnership with Solano County, its cities and local wastewater agencies, and is supported by the Center for Volunteer and Non-Profit Leadership (CVNL). These local events are part of a larger statewide Coastal Cleanup Day effort usually consisting over more than 1,000 sites throughout California. For a complete listing of Solano County partners and community cleanups, please visit cleanupsolano.org.