Come show your love for San Diego at our annual Cupid’s Cleanup on Saturday, February 10th from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at Robb Field located at 2525 Bacon Street, San Diego, CA 92107. Join ILACSD as we team up with Mike Hess Brewing to clean up the park and surrounding neighborhood. After the cleanup, walk a few short blocks to the Mike Hess Ocean Beach Tasting Room and enjoy a celebratory beverage for a flat $5! (this offer is only for volunteers ages 21 and older).
Mike Hess has been generous enough to offer this discount exclusively to Cupid’s Cleanup volunteers to thank you for beautifying the Ocean Beach community! Bring your loved ones to this awesome event to help celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early!
We will have cleanup supplies, snacks, and water. We also provide community service hours and Letters of Appreciation for volunteers. This is a great opportunity for students and families to learn ways to protect our local environment!
We encourage volunteers to bring their own reusable items such as water bottles, work gloves, and buckets to promote zero-waste practices and help us in our mission to have a zero waste, litter free and environmentally engaged San Diego region!
All volunteers are required to fill out a waiver form to participate and anyone under the age of 18 needs a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Looking for something to do on your free Saturday morning? Join Councilmember Zapf’s office and ILACSD at one of San Diego’s favorite local spots, Ocean Beach. The cleanup takes place on Saturday March 11th from 8:30AM-11:30AM. Spend some quality time with friends and family while giving back to this unique community!
Volunteers will meet at Veteran’s Plaza to assist with projects like painting, graffiti removal and storm drain stenciling! Like all of our cleanups, volunteers are required to fill out a waiver form in order to participate and any under the age of 18 will need a parent/guardian signature.
ILACSD encourages participants to bring reusable items – water bottles, gardening gloves, and/or a bucket!
Did you know you can contribute to your community from ANYWHERE on the go through the City of San Diego’s Get It Done app! You can report any litter/illegal dumping or storm drain issues right from your fingertips! Download the app on Apple App Store or Google Play!
Today’s blog comes from our administrative assistant, Brittany! San Diego native, born and raised, Brittany it goes without saying that she loves our beaches and 4th of July. To get you jazzed for the long holiday weekend ahead, she has put together some of her favorite waste-free tips for a day at the beach!
Looking for something fun to do for the upcoming patriotic holiday? Why go anywhere else when you live in a city full of beautiful beaches! The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holiday’s to spend at any beach in San Diego. With so many people at our beaches, there is one thing that tends to be left behind and that’s trash. This 4th of July, Clean Beach Coalition will have large trash and recycling bins located at Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Mission Bay, and Pacific Beach to give every beachgoer a chance to continue to keep the beach sparkling clean! Last year alone, the CBC bins collected 96,860 lbs of trash and 2.8 MILLION pounds in the last 8 years. Pretty impressive, right? In order to prevent more trash from ending up on our beaches this holiday, I wanted to share some of my favorite things to pack in order to stay green while still rocking red, white, and blue!
Keep an eye out for our huge trash and recycling bins. They’ll be hard to miss so be sure to put them to good use!
The key to staying green is to pack up all your reusable items to prevent any trash! Here is my easy to follow step-by-step guide to a waste-free weekend!
For starters, instead of using a Styrofoam cooler, bring a more durable reusable cooler. Not only will it last you years, it prevents any Styrofoam pieces from ending up on our beaches and the Pacific Ocean where it will never biodegrade.
Plastic pieces are easily mistaken for food by marine animals causing serious health issues. Here are pieces mixed in with sea kelp recently found at a cleanup.
When packing up your goodies, try using reusable containers to transferring and reusable silverware! Here are a couple of my personal favorite snacks to bring to my Fourth of July beach festivities:
Fourth of July Rice Crispies Treats are a favorite of mine. Not only are they easy to make, but you can put them in a reusable container and be set to go! Check out the recipe here!
Fruit Kabobs! All you need are some wooden skewers, strawberries, bananas, and blueberries and you have an ecofriendly, patriotic snack!
Fruit kabobs are the perfect plastic-free treat! Although the skewers will eventually go in the trash, wood will naturally biodegrade with time, unlike plastic.
3. Feeling thirsty? Fill up a reusable water bottle and bring it with you! Did you know American’s throw away 35 billion water bottles a year? It’s important to reduce bringing plastics to our beaches because once plastic enters the ocean, it is extremely difficult to clean up. Don’t have a reusable water bottle? Check out some of ILACSD’s reusable water bottles online!
Brittany always carries her reusable water bottle wherever she goes whether it’s the beach, a park or work. Check out our merchandise to get you own ILACSD gear to sport around town!
4. Don’t have anything to pack up the rest of your goods? Use a tote bag! My favorite tote bag can be washed and reused over and over again. Do your best to not bring plastic bags to the beach, not only are they not recyclable but if blown into the ocean, marine mammals can accidentally mistake them for food.
Still not ready to end your beach time this weekend? Come show your patriotism in a new way with I Love A Clean San Diego on July 5th for the Morning After Mess Cleanup. From 8-11am we will clean up the excess trash left behind on Mission Beach from the holiday celebrations. Plus, the first 400 volunteers will receive a free tee from REI!
Whether you decide to stay in San Diego this 4th of July Weekend or travel elsewhere, please enjoy the scene, but keep it clean.Have a safe and wonderful 4th of July!
Mindy & Jane, Dog Beach Dog Wash owners, with Juno, Chipper & Zydeco.
Today’s blog is a special one. Two of our longest standing supporters, Jane Donley and Mindy Pellissier, graciously put together these thoughtful answers about their experience as site captains and what they do year-round to help protect OB’s Dog Beach. Read on to learn more about their passion for a clean San Diego and why they want you to join them for Creek to Bay, happening April 25th!
Prior to opening the Dog Wash, Mindy & I got our first dog in Feb. 1989 and began visiting Dog Beach daily. The Ocean Beach Town Council had adopted Dog Beach in 1972 (when it officially became an off-leash area) for cleanups 3-4 times a year. As members of the Town Council, we became involved in the cleanups and in 1993 (when opening Dog Beach Dog Wash) took over as captains and organizers of the cleanups.
In 1996, we organized Friends of Dog Beach to cleanup and care for Dog Beach, conducting bi-weekly cleanups with several hundred volunteers. Currently we conduct monthly cleanups (every second Saturday from 9 to 11 am) in addition to Creek to Bay, Morning After Mess on July 5th, and Coastal Cleanup Day. We installed 12 stainless steel containers for dog bags with help from County Supervisor Greg Cox and the OB Community Development Corporation in 2002, and currently provide more than 10,000 free poop bags a week to keep Dog Beach clean.
Throw back to 2009 at one of OB Dog Beach’s monthly cleanups!
What brings us back?
We value Dog Beach (40+ acres of sand where the San Diego River meets the Pacific Ocean) for the joy it brings to the 10,000 dogs who visit each week, the social benefits to dogs and human guardians, and the love and respect we have for the natural habitat and fresh air. We are committed to improving the water quality of the river and ocean, and maintaining the beach as a desired destination for nature- and dog-lovers, and will always support organizations and individuals who share these values.
OB’s Dog Beach – 40+ acres of sand where the San Diego River meets the Pacific Ocean.
Why should others consider becoming site captains?
The best part of being a site captain is the vested interest in protecting and enhancing the beauty and health of a “great place” be it a canyon, creek, back alley or beach. Over years one can see improvements, and socializing with neighbors for a good cause improves everyone’s quality of life. Inspiring others, especially younger generations, to respect and enhance the environment is another major goal.
Volunteers, including Councilmember Lori Zapf and ILACSD Director Bill Haines, at last year’s Coastal Cleanup Day at Dog Beach.
Aside from cleanups, how else does Dog Beach Dog Wash protect the environment?
In our private lives, and at Dog Beach Dog Wash, we continually seek ways to protect and enhance the environment. We’ve planted trees, and conserve water with low-flow devices, synthetic lawn and low-water plants. We use recycled and recyclable paper products, green cleaning products, “Energy Star” appliances, and sell healthy organic dog treats and dog/cat collars and leashes made from soy and recycled plastic bottles. Because of potential zoonotic diseases, we cannot use recycled water; we looked into that.
Student volunteers from OB Sacred Heart Academy – Earth Day Cleanup 2012
Mark your calendars – registration opens Wednesday, April 1st! You’ll have the opportunity to choose from 100+ cleanup sites across San Diego County, including Jane & Mindy’s site in OB! For more information & to register, please visit www.CreektoBay.org. In a matter of only a couple hours, you’ll be able to show pride for your community working along side neighbors to ensure a safe and clean environment for current and future San Diegans!
Today’s blog comes from our administrative assistant, Brittany! San Diego native, born and raised, Brittany it goes without saying that she loves our beaches and 4th of July. To get you jazzed for the long holiday weekend ahead, she has put together some of her favorite waste-free tips for a day at the beach!
