Hundreds Expected to Take Part in San Diego Beach Cleanup Program

More than 1,400 volunteers are expected to participate in the sixth annual “Adopt-a-Beach” coastal cleanup project Saturday in San Diego.

Final plans for the local effort of the statewide program were announced Thursday at Sea World. The cleanup is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers are asked to arrive by 8:30 a.m.

Twenty-four cleanup sites have been designated along beaches from the Tijuana estuary to Oceanside. Each site will have a volunteer captain who will distribute bags in which to place the litter and recyclable material.

The California Coastal Commission declared Sept. 22-29 as Coastal Clean-up Week.

Silvia Edwards, program director of I Love a Clean San Diego, which sponsors the project, said more than 1,000 volunteers picked up 12,000 pounds of trash and recyclable material from San Diego’s beaches last year during four cleanup efforts.

“We hope to have more volunteers this year but not as much trash because, hopefully, people are learning what littering can do and learning to be careful” about putting trash and recyclable material into the proper containers, Edwards said.

The San Diego Urban Core will pick up the collected recyclable material and the San Diego Department of Park and Recreation will haul away the trash.

Among the volunteers will be 650 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, who will receive a marine conservation patch for their participation. After the cleanup, the Scouts are to spend the afternoon at Sea World.