{"id":484265,"date":"2026-10-03T21:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484265\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T21:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:42:08","slug":"local-residents-attack-litter-in-del-mar-solana-beach-at-annual-coastal-cleanup-day-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484265\/","title":{"rendered":"Local residents attack litter in Del Mar, Solana Beach at annual Coastal Cleanup Day \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Sept. 19, volunteers took action clearing beaches, canyons, rivers, and parks as part of I Love A Clean San Diego\u2019s 42nd annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Across 92 sites, including five in Del Mar and Solana Beach, volunteers removed an estimated 103,688 pounds of litter and debris, preventing waste from polluting local waterways and the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>According to a news release, cigarette butts, plastic bottle caps and food wrappers were among the most collected items. The oddest items found include a foot massager, a sofa cushion and flippers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLitter is the sixth most talked about thing in the country. And there\u2019s good news,\u201d said Steve Morris, I Love A Clean San Diego executive director, in the news release. \u201cBased on the last litter study (from Keep America Beautiful), litter is down 34% across America. That tells me this is a solvable problem. We can reduce the amount of litter in our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Local Pack 734 Scouts and their families volunteered during Coastal Cleanup Day at the San Dieguito Lagoon. (Courtesy I Love a Clean San Diego)\" width=\"960\" height=\"568\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DMT-L-COASTALCLEANUP-01.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"10077372\" \/>Local Pack 734 Scouts and their families volunteered during Coastal Cleanup Day at the San Dieguito Lagoon. (Courtesy I Love a Clean San Diego)<\/p>\n<p>Across the county, volunteers used gloves and grabbers to clear trash\u2014in National City they even used donated kayaks to pick up litter from the water. In Ramona a cleanup centered on one local resident\u2019s concerns about the coming El Ni\u00f1o and potential flooding. Volunteers cleared bulky items near a flood plain to help mitigate flood risk and keep storm drains clear.<\/p>\n<p>Locally, the San Dieguito Lagoon site in Del Mar was a \u201cheavy hitter\u201d, according to I Love A Clean San Diego. At the lagoon and under Interstate 5, a group of 47 volunteers that included Scouting America Pack 734 worked to clear 7,880 pounds of litter and debris\u2014their work also included native planting and invasive plant removal.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 47 pounds of trash was removed from Del Mar Dog Beach, 21 pounds taken from San Elijo Lagoon County Park, and 50 pounds from Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach. Another cleanup site was the green space and creek that runs behind the shopping center on Stevens Avenue in Solana Beach that houses Rudy\u2019s Taco Shop. There, a group of seven volunteers spent the morning removing 28 pounds of litter and debris from the space.<\/p>\n<p>Coastal Cleanup Day is supported locally by sponsors Niagara Cares, SDG&amp;E,\u00a0 Cox Communications, County of San Diego, Wells Fargo, Northrop Grumman, PNC Bank, Project Clean Water and Bank of America. According to the news release, over the last 42 years I Love A Clean San Diego\u2019s cleanups have brought together more than 270,000 volunteers, resulting in over 5 million pounds of litter cleared from local outdoor spaces.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on I Love A Clean San Diego programs, visit cleansd.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sept. 19, volunteers took action clearing beaches, canyons, rivers, and parks as part of I Love A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[310,311,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-484265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-del-mar-times","tag-del-mar-times-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}