Coastal Clean Up Day 2009

Highlights

Click here to view photos from the event!

Click here to view trash tally data cards with totals from all of the sites

Coastal Clean Up Volunteers! Take this survey to be entered into a drawing for a "coast-lover" prize package ($200 value).

On Saturday, September 19th, the Richmond and Albany shorelines hummed with hundreds of volunteers ready to clean up their shoreline as part of the 25th anniversary of California Coastal Clean Up Day. This year, The Watershed Project helped mobilize close to 882 volunteers at six locations along the Richmond and Albany shoreline all the way from the Albany Bulb to Shimada Friendship Park in Richmond as well as a site along Pinole Creek. These motivated volunteers collected approximately 13,099 pounds of trash and 680 pounds of recyclables.

Approximately 417 volunteers met at Shimada Friendship Park, collecting 1,930 pounds of trash and 177 pounds of recyclables. At Point Isabel, a group of 260 volunteers collected 1,400 pounds of trash and 150 pounds of recyclables. At the Albany Bulb, 150 volunteers collected close to 1,209 pounds of trash and 105 pounds of recyclables. Inland at Pinole Creek 55 volunteers collected 4.5 tons of trash and 100 pounds of recyclables.

Tiny bits of Styrofoam came in as the number one most collected item at every single site, with 6256 substantial pieces collected. Next were plastic bags (5421 pieces collected), food wrappers (5095 units collected), caps/lids (4483 pieces collected) and straws (2803 units collected). Some peculiar items reported included an unopened message in a bottle and a Nintendo game system hooked up to a television. At the Pinole Creek site, volunteers found 30 rolls of barbed wire, 50 tires, and one full car engine block, among many other large items.

The Watershed Project is grateful for the inspiring number of volunteers who helped clean up our gorgeous East Bay shoreline. We look forward to partnering with you for next year's Coastal Clean Up effort and many other pollution prevention and outreach activities throughout the year.

The Watershed Project would like to thank all the volunteers and organizations that helped make this event a success, especially The California Coastal Commission for 25 years of leadership in organizing this amazing event; County Supervisor John Gioia and his staff for providing a healthy lunch and being the pioneers in bringing this event to Richmond; the City of Richmond for providing logistical support and great prints of the educational materials; the City of Albany and its staff for making the Albany Coastal Clean Up event a success; Richmond Shoreline Citizens Response for providing team leaders; Making Waves and all its students and team leaders for bringing over 200 young volunteers to the Richmond Shoreline; and, EarthTeam Environmental Network for bringing over 100 students to the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline.

Additionally, we would like to thank EBMUD for organizing a wonderful effort to rescue Pinole Creek from stifling amounts of trash; Citizens for East Shore Parks and REI for helping sign up volunteers; and, East Bay Regional Parks District for partnering to collect data for the first time ever at Point Isabel.

Last but not least we would like to thank our local event sponsors starting with the Clif Bar Foundation, Cafe Teatro, Zoe's Cookies, El Cerrito Natural Foods, Starbucks, Safeway, Costco, Whole Foods, Rialto Cinemas, Trader Joes, Matson & Navigation, Richard Poe, Albany Bowl, Albany Twin Theatre, Five Little Monkeys, Noah's Bagels, Oaks Theatre, Royal Grounds Coffee, Solano Avenue Cyclery, Sunny Side Cafe , Toys Go Round, Transports, and Vara Healing Arts.