Eco Slo

Mark your calendars! Coastal Cleanup Day is scheduled for Saturday, September 25th from 9am-12pm this year. We'll need as many of you as possible to join us for a day at the beach to enjoy the sand and surf while making our county shores cleaner and safer by picking up trash

About Coastal Cleanup Day

The purpose of Coastal Cleanup Day is to remove marine debris from the state’s beaches and waterways, identify its sources and change behavior that causes pollution. The first California Coastal Cleanup Day was in 1985 with 2,500 volunteers turning out to help. Since then, the event has grown to become International Coastal Cleanup Day, the largest volunteer event of its kind in the world. California Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers account for almost 20% of the world totals with 80,615 participants picking up well over a million pounds of trash in 2009. In San Luis Obispo County alone, 1,425 volunteers picked up 4,129 pounds of marine debris in 2009.

New events this year will include the “BYO” campaign: bring your own bag, bucket, bottle or gloves. The goal is to reduce the amount of plastic generated during the clean-up.

Biological debris is another problem on our coastlines and waterways. Invasive species force out the establishment of the natural habitat which may have a negative impact on the creatures who rely on their natural habitat for feeding and nesting. New this year, there will be one site where volunteers will be working on invasive species removal. With training and proper supervision this will be a wonderful addition to an already successful project. Please contact us directly if you are interested on the species removal as space will be limited.

So please do your part! We need both site captains and volunteers to work the beaches. If you can't come to the event itself, help us out by donating a prize or putting up one of our posters in your business or organization.