California’s 42nd annual Coastal Cleanup Day is coming up this month on Sunday, September 19, 2026.
Since 1985, more than 1.6 million volunteers have shown up on their local coastlines to remove over 26 million pounds of trash. Coastal Cleanup Day is now the largest annual volunteer event in California and the largest single-day volunteer event in the country.
The event serves as a major reset for California’s coastline, protecting people, wildlife, and local ecosystems from plastic pollution. Cleanups are organized at beaches, rivers, and lakes all the way from the Tijuana River Valley up to the Smith River just before the Oregon border.
On Instagram, the California Coastal Commission shared that this year’s event will be especially important. “The increased rainfall expected from El Niño can wash plastic pollution from creeks and streams into the ocean,” they write.
“Coastal Cleanup Day provides an opportunity to prevent even greater harm to the coast and the wildlife that calls it home.”
Participating in Coastal Cleanup Day
Anyone is welcome to join the dozens of cleanups concentrated around the Los Angeles area. You can visit the California Coastal Commission website to find a map of all Cleanup Day sites, register for an event, and sign a digital waiver.
Some local sites include numerous beaches in Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes, and more. Not to mention some inland locations, such as the Ballona Beach bike path in Culver City, Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, and Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.
Some sites will accept day-of volunteers, while others require advance registration. Each cleanup site’s effort generally runs from 9 am to 12 pm on September 19th, but still double-check your individual site’s date and hours, as some of them vary.
Organizers request that participants bring their own reusable bucket or bag, gardening gloves, water, sun protection, and sturdy shoes. Most sites will also have additional supplies available.
Volunteers can also use the CleanSwell app or paper data cards to log what they collect, contributing to useful information about the kinds of debris reaching local waterways.
Learn more: California Coastal Cleanup Day 2026
