NOTICE: In accordance with national and statewide regulations guiding the response to COVID-19, we are postponing all community cleanups, sponsored cleanups, and Cleanup-In-A-Box kit reservations until further notice. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and commitment to clean rivers, streams, beaches, and oceans.
Our community cleanup program is run in partnership with our friends at Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter. Together, we schedule between two and four public cleanups per month, in locations up and down the coast. These cleanups are free and open to the public, and provide a great way for people to have an immediate, positive impact on our coastal environment. If you’d like to participate, start by checking out the 2020 cleanup schedule here.
On the day of the cleanup, simply:
- Look for the Coastkeeper or Surfrider popup tent on or adjacent to the beach when you arrive.
- Sign or turn in a waiver. Anyone under 18 needs a guardian signature on their waiver in order to participate.
- Borrow cleanup supplies (or better yet, bring reusable gloves and a bucket of your own!) and pick up a datasheet.
- Hit the beach to pick up man-made debris (driftwood, dried seaweed, feathers, etc. stay on the beach), filling out a data sheet as you go.
- Drop off your bag of trash and filled-out datasheet at the registration table when you are finished.
- Pick up a volunteer verification slip from the cleanup host, or ask the host to sign any documentation you brought with you, as needed.
A note on groups: Unless you plan to bring a group of over 20 people to a cleanup, you don’t need to register in advance. Simply show up, sign in, and get started. If you do have a large group, please email [email protected] to let us know. That way we can check to make sure the cleanup can accommodate you. Not every cleanup can support a large group in addition to the usual number of attendees, so it’s important to plan in advance, communicate with us early, and be flexible with your dates if you want to attend as a group.
Weather cancellation policy: For the most part, cleanups will be held rain or shine. If there’s some drizzle in the forecast, chances are we are still holding the cleanup. If there’s a rare downpour, we may cancel. Check our social media channels for cancellation notices.
A note on partnership: We love partnering with companies and groups that care about our coast. If your company or group would like to support our community cleanups, we’d love to hear from you. We are happy to consider partnership proposals on a case-by-case basis. Please note that community beach cleanups are permitted special events that take a lot of advance planning, so it’s important that you communicate with Coastkeeper before promoting a community cleanup, recruiting a large number of additional participants, marketing the event with your branding, or soliciting partnerships on our behalf.