Community Cleanup set for September 15

September 15 is the date! Keep Fallbrook Clean and Green has scheduled their annual Community-wide Cleanup for Saturday, September 15, in conjunction with I Love a Clean San Diego’s California Coastal Cleanup Day. The Cleanup, from 9 a.m. to noon, will include a paper shredding event at the parking lot behind the Art & Cultural Center, a household dry-cell battery drop-off at the same location and a large item cleanup in several areas of town under the aegis of I Love a Clean San Diego, as well as street litter pickup in the downtown area.

The Cleanup Day is part of a state-wide effort to pick up litter and clean up local communities, jointly sponsored by I Love a Clean San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper. The Coastal Cleanup Day is the California Coastal Commission’s premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment and is the largest such event in the country. On this day, 50,000 volunteers turn out to more than 700 cleanup sites statewide to conduct what has been hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest garbage collection” (1993). Since the program started in 1985, more than 650,000 Californians have removed more than 10 million pounds of debris from our state’s shorelines and coast. When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by The Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events of the year.

By volunteering on September 15, residents will be simultaneously joining others in countries around the globe to clean the coast and inland waterways and their local communities. San Diego County has set a goal to get 5,000 volunteers out this year. Sign up at http://www.cleanupday.org.

Volunteers can also contact Keep Fallbrook Clean and Green at (760) 723-1138 or the Mission Resource Conservation District at (760) 728-1332. Everyone who volunteers must first sign and submit a waiver, obtained through the I Love a Clean San Diego Web site. Waivers will also be available on Cleanup Day at the parking lot behind the Art & Cultural Center.