Post Labor Day Beach Cleanups Unusual

Save Our Shores & 33 Volunteers Remove 355 lbs. of Trash From Monterey Bay Beaches

California Central Coast volunteers were busy this Labor Day Weekend. Save Our Shores held their annual Holiday Relief pollution prevention outreach and beach cleanup events to help abate holiday waste. This year’s results were unusual.

On Labor Day, a team of 15 Save Our Shores’ Sanctuary Stewards and volunteers talked to more than 800 holiday beachgoers at Cowell/Main Beach in Santa Cruz, giving out nearly 250 free trash bags. The nonprofit’s small awareness effort helped reduce the amount of trash people left behind the morning after Labor Day – and the numbers show it.

On Tuesday morning, 18 volunteers recovered 355 pounds of trash from Davenport Main Beach, Cowell/Main, Sunny Cove, Corcoran Lagoon/26th, and Del Monte Beach. The numbers are up 185 pounds from last year. Of the group, Cowell/Main in Santa Cruz was atypically the cleanest.

Save Our Shores Program Associate, Michael Pollacci, comments on the surprise. “It may have to do with the tractor-drawn beachcombing that happens every morning, or maybe because of increased efforts by the local business like the Dream Inn and The Beach Boardwalk. Regardless, cigarette butts were still the most common item picked up, and small plastic pieces were all too easy to find.”

The largest mess uncharacteristically came from Corcoran Lagoon/26th. There, Sanctuary Stewards’ Mary and Steve Scheller along with one other volunteer prevented 143 pounds of trash from entering the ocean.

“I was stunned,” said Mary. “I live very close and I walk this beach a lot. I was stunned by the amount of illegal substances, the clothing, and overwhelming amount of beer cans and bottles… I’ve never seen Corcoran in such condition before.”

Among the oddities/grossities removed: A vacuum cleaner, a whole weber grill, illicit substance paraphernalia, a few vinyl records, female hygiene products, two large metal files, a whole bag of edible medical cannabis candies, and lots of filled dog poop bags.

Thanks to cleanbeach PSAs, social media advertising, and public outreach in partnership with the City of Santa Cruz, Save Our Shores’ has seen an overall decline in the amount of waste removed from Monterey Bay beaches on the Labor Day holiday weekend.

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Save Our Shores thanks volunteers, community members, responsible beachgoers, California State Parks, and the County and City of Monterey and Santa Cruz for keeping California’s Central Coast beaches clean this Labor Day. To learn more about volunteering visit: saveourshores.org/volunteer