For a lot of San Diegans, celebrating the 4th of July means heading down to the beach with family or friends and having a good time. Ideally everyone cleans up after themselves, but we know that doesn’t always happen. Fortunately, many amazing organizations rally to the beaches and parks and set up booths where volunteers can come pick up supplies to clean up and ensure the beach is clean for friends and fish alike!
How to Help
There are dozens of groups that will have booths at various beaches across San Diego. The Surfrider foundation is partnering with “I love a Clean San Diego,” the SD Coastkeeper, and other great organizations to have cleanups starting around 9am at Mission Beach Park, Moonlight Beach Pier, Crystal Beach Pier, Ocean Beach Pier, Oceanside Pier, Belmont Park, and OB Dog Beach.
The event will run from 9am to 11am, and they will supply you with buckets, grabbers, and gloves. But know that supplies are limited! I suggest you bring your own gloves and bucket if you have one. If you have a grabber, bring that too!
For more info check out…
SD Coastkeeper’s site: https://www.sdcoastkeeper.org/beach-cleanups
I Love a Clean SD’s event page: https://cleansd.org/events/category/events/cleanups/list/
Surfrider’s Cleanup Page: https://sandiego.surfrider.org/beachcleanups/
Unaffiliated Cleanups
You can always tackle a beach alone! Just spending an hour out and about by yourself is a great way to make a difference. If you organize a solo cleanup, we recommend you bring a buddy and log the trash you’ve collected in Surfrider’s Solo Cleanup form linked here: https://sandiego.surfrider.org/dataform/
Want to volunteer any other time of year? Check out our article on beach cleanups from last year!
https://www.sdpeba.org/news/city/clean-the-beaches---volunteer-opportunities