Volunteers Pick Up 1,947 lbs of Trash

Organized Cleanups Proved Successful With Help of 182 Community Members

SANTA CRUZ — Save Our Shores (SOS), the leader in ocean awareness, advocacy and action on the Central Coast, has announced the results from today’s Star Spangled Beach Cleanup. SOS hosted 11 cleanups around the Monterey Bay and, with the help of 182 volunteers, prevented 1,947 pounds of debris from entering the water in just two hours.

The Star Spangled Beach Cleanup is SOS’ second largest cleanup of the year. Cleanups were held at: • Davenport Main Beach • Cowell and Main Beach • Seabright State Beach • Twin Lakes State Beach • Sunny Cove • Moran Lake • Seacliff State Beach • Hidden Beach • Casa Verde Beach • Del Monte City Beach • Carmel City Beach.

Cowell / Main Beach was the dirtiest site with more than 676 pounds of waste removed. Davenport Main Beach came in second with 412 pounds of trash. The most common items found were cigarette butts and fireworks. Volunteers also found broken beach chairs, barbeque grills and pop up tents.

During last year’s Star Spangled Beach Cleanup, 320 volunteers prevented 1,894 pounds of trash from polluting 15 beaches along the Central Coast. This year, SOS focused the number of cleanup sites to 11 in order to concentrate volunteers into teams to give locations the attention they needed.

“We tend to get nervous on holidays that create a three-day weekend as increased foot traffic often leads to an increase in trash left in the sand. I was pleasantly surprised by how clean many locations were this year,” said SOS Program Coordinator Bronti Patterson. “I attribute this success to our dedicated volunteers who led outreach and cleanup efforts as well as this sense of responsibility from our community to protect our beautiful coastline.”

In past years, SOS has seen trash cans overflowing at the beach on July 5, so the nonprofit teamed up with the City and County of Santa Cruz, GreenWaste, California State Parks and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to increase the number of trash cans and dumpsters on the beach during Independence Day weekend.

SOS wishes to thank all of its partner organizations, including the Sanctuary Exploration Center, Rio Del Mar Home Improvement Association, Bold Earth, the Surfrider Foundation, the Otter Project, NOAA Marine Debris Program, the California Coastal Commission and the Carmel Residents Association that assisted with beach cleanups and helped make this year’s event a huge success.

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