Heal the Bay Blog

Category: Coastal Cleanup Day

Coastal Cleanup Day 2013 Promotions!

09.20.2013 | Heal the Bay

“The World’s Largest Volunteer Day” — Coastal Cleanup Day — is tomorrow, September 21! As if keeping our beaches and parks clean isn’t enough, many cleanup sites throughout Los Angeles County will feature amazing promotions for participating volunteers, including free food, yoga classes, stand-up paddleboard lessons and more! You could even win free burritos from Chipotle for a whole year. To find out which cleanup site these awesome promotions will be at, check our list of cleanup sites.

1. Santa Monica Beach, North of the Pier – Start the Day with a free yoga class and peace circle with Naam Yoga at 8:30am. After you help cleaning the beach, you can enjoy a free stand-up paddleboard clinic with Michelob Light, use free admission to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, observe the exhilarating Bud Light Dory Race and enter to win a stand-up paddleboard at the beach clean-up and Dory Race.

2. Santa Monica Pier – Bring your recyclables to the Santa Monica Pier and you’ll be entered to win exciting Honest Tea raffle prizes this Coastal Cleanup Day. After the clean-up, join us at Rusty’s Surf Ranch to win a stand-up paddle board at 3pm.

3. Venice Beach Pier & Venice Beach at Rose – Abbot Kinney Memorial Library will be celebrating Talk-Like-A-Pirate day a few days late with a Moby Dick screening, food and sea shanties after the cleanup. Celebrate your volunteer service at Venice Ale House with a beer garden and live DJ for the Coastal Cleanup Day after-party.

4. Ways Park (87th Street and McKinley Ave, Los Angeles, CA) – This inland cleanup will focus on neighborhood alleys. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. This cleanup is hosted in partnership with Councilman Curren Price, celebrating the future home of WAYS Park.

5. Will Rogers (15900 Pacific Coast Hwy. at Temescal Canyon Road, Pacific Palisades, CA) – Enjoy a free lunch compliments of Chase Bank for all clean-up volunteers.

6. Get ready for the LA City Bag Ban at all sites by earning a free reusable bag at all City of LA clean-up locations.

7. Dockweiler Beach, Tower 55 (11999 Vista del Mar, El Segundo, CA 90293) – Yoga Trailblazers hosts a free yoga class south of Tower 55 from 8:30-9:30 am before the cleanup. Bring a yoga mat and wear sunscreen for this beginner class. Veggie Grill will also provide food to keep volunteers energized.

8. Malibu Pier – If you are SCUBA dive certified, this is the site for you. Arrive for the dive at 8am. Prizes will be awarded for the most bizarre items found after the clean-up. Malibu Divers will provide free air fill and half price gear rentals for SCUBA dive volunteers.

9. Santa Monica Beach, Tower 20 (End of Bay Street, Santa Monica, CA) – By helping clean this historic site, you’ll be entered into a raffle for a custom surfboard.

10. To reward your service protecting our environment from harmful trash, Chipotle is providing free burrito coupons at most clean-up sites in the LA area. Plus, volunteers who take Instagram pictures of their efforts collecting trash tagged #litterati, #chipotlemexicangrill and #coastalcleanupday will automatically be entered into a contest to win free burritos for a year from Chipotle.

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What Will You Find on Coastal Cleanup Day? Friends

09.04.2013 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day News

As of this week, Gabrielle Harradine has raised $270 — $70 over her goal — to “help fund the fight” against pollution on Coastal Cleanup Day. Here she details why she’s “friendraising” for Heal the Bay and what she hopes to find on Coastal Cleanup Day.

This coming Coastal Cleanup Day on September 21 will be the first one since we started a family together. We’d done two cleanups with Heal the Bay before we had children. At the earlier cleanups, I remember finding a lot of cigarette butts; followed by small bits of plastic.

Now that my daughter is old enough to be able to really participate and understand what we are doing, I am looking forward to seeing her enthusiasm. She learned about trash in the oceans at Heal the Bay’s Aquarium in Santa Monica, so Coastal Cleanup Day will be a good follow up.

The response to our fundraising has been exciting and much better than I expected! (Although we do have lots of beach loving friends and family.) A lot of people want to help; it’s just a matter of putting it in front of them so they can respond.

On September 21, I expect to find a group of like-minded people slugging through the sand for any bits of trash. Hopefully, we’ll get to see some thankful breaching dolphins from the shore!

— Gabrielle Harradine

What will YOU find on Coastal Cleanup Day?

Join the biggest volunteer action on the planet, Coastal Cleanup Day, on Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 9 a.m. to noon. Share your personal cleanup discoveries using Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #whatwillyoufind. Past volunteers have found love and a hundred dollar bill!

Anyone can create a fundraising page to support the effort to protect our local natural resources. Volunteers who raise $100 or more receive a Heal the Bay T-shirt.

Gabrielle Harradine sails the Bay.

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What Will You Find on Coastal Cleanup Day? Love

09.03.2013 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Events

When I started working as Heal the Bay’s Coastal Cleanup Day Manager in 2007, I had no idea that I would end up finding the love of my life. That year, Heal the Bay worked with Councilmember Tony Cardenas’ office on the Northeast San Fernando Valley cleanup sites. I initially started off on the wrong foot with the cleanup captain, Olga. She tried to tell me how to run a cleanup site, but I was certain I knew how to do it better. Olga was concerned with breaking trash-collecting records while I wanted to ensure the best educational and efficient experience for volunteers. A year later, after a very successful cleanup, we started a friendship that led to love. We still laugh about which one of us knows how to do the job better, but I admit that her sites almost always break cleanup records. So this past week, right before Coastal Cleanup Day, I married her. What will you find at Coastal Cleanup Day? I found love and I couldn’t be happier.

— Eveline Bravo-Ayala,
Heal the Bay’s Beach Program Manager

Join the biggest volunteer day on the planet, Coastal Cleanup Day, on Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 9 a.m. to noon. Tweet, Facebook or Instagram us with the hashtag #whatwillyoufind to share your unique Coastal Cleanup Day discoveries!

Eveline Bravo, middle, with wife Olga Ayala and Congressmember Tony Cardenas.

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Don't Miss the World's Biggest Volunteer Day!

06.26.2013 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day News

Be part of the solution to pollution! Join your fellow Angelenos on Coastal Cleanup Day (aka the BIGGEST volunteer day on the planet!) on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013 from 9 a.m. to noon. This year Heal the Bay will organize more than 60 cleanup locations all over Los Angeles County. A complete list of cleanup sites and more details will be posted on our website later this summer.

In an effort to create more sustainable events, we ask cleanup volunteers to bring their own reusable supplies. All that you need to clean is a bucket to share, one glove to pick up trash and your reusable water bottle to stay hydrated. The more reusable tools you bring to the cleanup, the fewer disposable supplies we waste in this effort.

You can use a lot of different items as a cleanup bucket, such as a sand pail, milk jug, car wash tub, old paint can or even a washable tote bag will do the trick. To be Zero Waste, you just have to get creative.

Last year more than 9000 Angelenos worked together to keep nearly 20 tons of debris from heading to the ocean. Check out more results from last year’s Coastal Cleanup Day.

Make sure you don’t miss out: Subscribe to our enewsletter.

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Getting to Zero at Our Beach Cleanups

05.13.2013 | Heal the Bay

About Us Coastal Cleanup Day

Seven years ago, Heal the Bay eliminated single use plastic water bottles from our events in an effort to not generate as much waste or trash as we were picking up at our cleanups.

Now when you join a Heal the Bay cleanup, you can visit the water station to refill your reusable water bottle, or use a 3 oz. paper cup. This transition away from plastic to alternatives was so successful that we considered reducing or eliminating other waste-producing elements of our cleanups.

So in 2010, Heal the Bay introduced a “zero waste” clean-up idea at a number of Coastal Cleanup Day sites. The “zero waste” cleanup involved eliminating latex gloves and plastic water bottles, and significantly reducing the number of plastic bags used for collecting trash. Instead of latex gloves, Heal the Bay requested that people bring their own, or use one of our cloth gloves. In addition, Heal the Bay provided “painter’s buckets” for participants to place their collected trash. These “zero waste” events became so popular that we co-opted the “B.Y.O.B” acronym to mean “Bring Your Own Bucket”.

Over the last three years, Heal the Bay’s “zero waste” cleanups have been able to substantially reduce the trash generated from producing these cleanups. For example, the we’ve reduced the waste generated at an event from plastic water bottles from 100 12 oz. bottles to two or three gallon-size water bottles. We now use an average of 15 plastic bags, rather than 250; and 50 latex gloves versus 600.

This successful transition has encouraged us to expand our “zero waste” clean-ups beyond Coastal Cleanup Day to our other clean-up programs like Corporate Healers and Nothing But Sand events. In fact, Heal the Bay is striving to make this the “Zero Waste” Clean-up year. HOORAY!

Do you want to party with us in our “nothingness”? Great! You’re invited to celebrate our “Nothingness” and all its glory this Saturday, May 18 from 10 a.m. to Noon at our Nothin’ But Sand beach cleanup at Will Rogers State Beach (at the end of Temescal Canyon Road on PCH). The beautiful venue will be provided — all you have to do is bring yourself, your gloves, and your bucket. See you there!

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CCD 2012: They Found What!?

10.22.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day Malibu / Pacific Palisades South Bay

The most bizarre item found during 2012 Coastal Cleanup Day was a paddleboat in the woods. Yes! You read that right! It sounds like the lead in to a joke, but it’s the item Kentaro Lunn and Garrett Nas-tarin found during their mountain bike cleanup in Malibu Creek State Park. They not only found the boat, but hauled it over rough terrain to an access road where a state park crew could pick it up.

Other unusual finds this year included a hair weave, a rifle barrel found by divers in the water off Redondo Beach Pier (turned over to police), some toilets (including one still boxed), beach chairs, a “No Smoking” sign, and a 25 pound barrel of oil sludge.

Garrett and Kentaro received goody bags from Heal the Bay to thank them for their hard work!

See more photos from Coastal Cleanup Day 2012.

Coastal Cleanup Day 2012: Most Unusual Found Items

Coastal Cleanup Day 2012: They Found What?!

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And the CCD Instagram Winner is…

10.15.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day News

…Tiana Tinsley! Tiana’s photograph received a whopping 127 likes on Facebook and is our #CCD2012 Instagram Photo Contest winner! Tiana’s photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book. Tiana and a guest will get to spend an afternoon exploring the aquarium with an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour! Congratualtions Tiana!

Tiana Tinsley Instagram photo winner CCD2012 beach coastal cleanupday

Second place went to Jacki Carr, whose photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book.

Jackie Carr Instagram photo winner CCD2012 beach coastal cleanupday

Courtney Middleton’s photograph came in third place and will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

Courtney Middleton Instagram photo winner CCD2012 beach coastal cleanupday

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest and who voted for the winners on Facebook.

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Pick Your Favorite Instagram Photo!

10.08.2012 | Heal the Bay

Coastal Cleanup Day News

Thousands of Angelenos braved the heat on Coastal Cleanup Day, ridding their neighborhoods and favorite waterways of harmful and unsightly trash while simultaneously capturing the moments on their Smartphones and cameras.

After many days of deliberation, we have come up with three finalists in the #CCD2012 Instagram contest. Now we need you to pick a winner. To vote on Facebook, click on this link, then click on your favorite photo, click “Like” and you’re done! The picture with the most “Likes” by Monday, October 15, 2012, wins. Thank you to everyone who submitted such beautiful photographs, the decision was a very difficult one!

Prizes:

First Prize: The photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book. You and a guest will also receive a private, behind-the-scenes tour of Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium!
Second Prize (2): The photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book.
Third Prize (5): The photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

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An Epic Amount of CCD Trash

09.15.2012 | Heal the Bay

About Us Coastal Cleanup Day Long Beach / Avalon Malibu / Pacific Palisades Marina del Rey / Playa del Rey Palos Verdes Peninsula Santa Monica South Bay Venice Beach

Despite scorching temperatures, Southlanders showed up in droves on Saturday to pick up nearly 20 tons of ocean-bound debris as part of Heal the Bay’s 23^rd annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

From Agoura Hills to Wilmington, 9,323 Angelenos worked together to protect what they love, scouring local beaches, inland waterways, regional parks and urban neighborhoods from 9 a.m. to noon.

Heal the Bay’s efforts spanned 58 sites and 56 miles, mobilizing volunteers from local corporations, service groups, faith-based organizations, school clubs and youth sports teams who worked in tandem to gather and remove 38,598 pounds of debris. Cigarette butts, plastic bottles and caps, snack-food packaging, plastic bags and Styrofoam fragments were among the most frequently found items at cleanups.

Among the unusual objects found at the September 15 cleanups: a dead rooster with its head cut off, likely a remnant of a voodoo or Santeria ritual (Santa Monica Beach); a dead cat found in a bag (Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park); a rifle barrel, later confiscated by police (Torrance Beach). And in the “Only in L.A.” file: a tattered headshot of an aspiring actor found by divers on the sea bottom near the Santa Monica Pier.

Read our news release for more details.

If you missed Coastal Cleanup Day, no worries! Heal the Bay hosts monthly cleanups, every third Saturday 10 a.m.-Noon. Learn more.

Still feeling left out? Donations fuel our cleanups. Just $20 can help run a cleanup site in your neighborhood. Donate now.

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Ready for Your Cleanup Closeup?

09.15.2012 | Heal the Bay

About Us Coastal Cleanup Day Long Beach / Avalon Malibu / Pacific Palisades Marina del Rey / Playa del Rey Palos Verdes Peninsula Santa Monica South Bay Venice Beach

Thousands of Angelenos braved the heat on Saturday’s Coastal Cleanup Day, ridding their neighborhoods and favorite waterways of harmful and unsightly trash while simultaneously capturing the moments on their Smartphones and cameras.

This year’s CCD motto was “Every Piece of Trash You Remove Reveals Something Beautiful” and if you took a great photo we’d love to see it! Please share it with @HealTheBay on Instagram, and your photograph could be on exhibit at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and featured in the Coastal Cleanup Day wrap-up publication! Images can be of a beach or kayak cleanup, underwater photos from a dive cleanup, pictures of trash, clean beaches, volunteers, or anything from Coastal Cleanup Day 2012!

How to enter: Upload photos from Coastal Cleanup Day to your Instagram feed, make sure they are public, and tag them with #CCD2012 AND @HealtheBay, as well as including location information through Geo-Tagging and/or hashtagging with your cleanup site’s name (i.e. #DockweilerBeach). At the end of the contest, Heal the Bay will collect all of the photos and decide the winners. You can enter as many photos as you want!

You can submit photos from now until September 29, and the winner will be announced October 1 through Instagram, so start uploading to Instagram! Good luck!

Prizes:

First Prize: Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book. You and a guest will also receive a private, behind-the-scenes tour of Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium!
Second Prize (2): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and published in our Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 wrap-up book.
Third Prize (5): Your photograph will be exhibited at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.

For those not familiar with the photo sharing app, Instagram is an app for Smartphones that lets you easily tweak photos from your mobile device to give them an artistic look. If you don’t have it already installed on your phone, download the app for free.

No purchase necessary. No automated entries. Enter as many photos as you like. Photos must be taken at a Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 volunteer site in order to be eligible. By entering the contest, each entrant agrees that his or her submission is an original work of authorship and he or she owns all right, title and interest in the entry as of the date of submission. By entering the contest, entrants agree to assign all right, title, and interest, including copyright rights, in the entry to Heal the Bay and grant permission for Heal the Bay to publish or publicize all or part of their entry, including but not limited to entrant’s name, likeness and photo, in whole or in part, for advertising, promotional and trade or other purposes in conjunction with this and similar promotions in any and all media now known or hereafter developed, worldwide in perpetuity, without notice or permission and without compensation, except where prohibited by law.

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