California Coastal Cleanup Day will celebrate its 41st year this September with its first ever “Trashure Hunt,” offering participants the chance to win a variety of prizes by volunteering to pick up litter and garbage at hundreds of locations across the state, organizers announced this week.
The state’s largest volunteer event, organized by the California Coastal Commission, is expected to draw more than 50,000 people to trash pickup sites. To find a site near you, visit tinyurl.com/3a27ttfu.
The Trashure Hunt will take place on Sept. 20. Participating volunteers will have a chance to win everything from hotel stays, theme park tickets, gift cards, Giants tickets, a ceremonial first pitch at an A’s game, an e-bike and more, says a press release from the commission.
More details about the Trashure Hunt can be found at tinyurl.com/4vamp5s5.
“We’re very excited about this year’s creative twist on Coastal Cleanup Day,” said California Coastal Commission Executive Director Kate Huckelbridge. “Californians have repeatedly shown up to protect the state’s iconic shoreline, and this is our way of celebrating that dedication.”
Past cleanup events have proven so successful that the Coastal Commission introduced a self-guided program in 2020 to allow participation across the entire month of September, says the press release. Last year, more than 47,000 volunteers turned out, including at over 700 cleanup sites on Coastal Cleanup Day itself.
“Volunteers are already giving so much to help protect our precious natural resources,” said Jamie Barrett, chief creative officer with pro bono ad agency Barrett Hofherr, which helped design this year’s event. “We thought it was time to reward those efforts wherever we could and hopefully entice more people to come join in on the fun.”
The Coastal Commission organizes the event with help from hundreds of governments and nonprofit agencies throughout the state. About 1.8 million volunteers have helped remove more than 13,500 tons of trash since the event’s launch in 1985. The most common items include cigarette filters, food wrappers, plastic straws and other utensils.
Winter rains in California can flush trash and other debris through rivers, creeks and channels from inland areas across hundreds of miles to the ocean, the commission explained. That means that even volunteers participating in places such as San Benito and Santa Clara counties can help protect the coast.
