A bowling ball, a blanket, a bean bag chair, and a box of store-bought fish. None of these items belong in our creeks, yet all of them are items we have removed from Contra Costa’s waterways during past CA Coastal Cleanup Day cleanups. Every year, on or around CA Coastal Cleanup Day, we work with partners and community members to remove tons of trash and debris from our shorelines and creeks.

September 19, 2026 will be the 42nd annual CA Coastal Cleanup Day. It’s a day when people all over California gather to collect trash from shorelines and inland waterways with the primary goal of diverting that trash from entering the ocean. According to the California Coastal Commission, “In 1993, California Coastal Cleanup Day was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘largest garbage collection’ ever organized, with 50,405 volunteers. Since then, Coastal Cleanup Day continued to grow, steadily expanding inland.” That expansion inland makes sense due to the role of gravity and the nature of watersheds. As water travels through our Bay Area watersheds, trash accumulates; when the water ends up in the Bay and the ocean after that, so does the trash . . . unless we get to the trash first!

Luckily, Contra Costa County is full of people who step up to remove trash on CA Coastal Cleanup Day. We’ve worked with countless partners including many scout groups, students, Kiwanis/Key Club members, cities, sanitary districts, friends of creek groups, and local businesses to safely dispose of trash found in and near our waterways. At one of our recent Grayson Creek cleanups in Pleasant Hill, we had students from four different local high schools in attendance!

And while it may sometimes feel like the trash situation is hopeless, there are several ways in which people have changed the type and amount of trash found in California for the better. For example, data collected during past CA Coastal Cleanup Day events has supported the passage of laws banning thin single-use plastic bags and polystyrene foodware. These bans have diminished the number of plastic bags and polystyrene products we find in the environment.

Thank you to the Contra Costa County Watershed Program and Contra Costa County Flood Control & Water Conservation District for funding the CCRCD’s work to assist with cleanups throughout the County. Thanks also to the California Coastal Commission for providing creek cleanup supplies to site captains for CA Coastal Cleanup Day.