The 42nd annual Coastal Cleanup Day takes place all across the state and here in San Luis Obispo County the cleaning isnt focused just on the beaches.
Just because its not just about the beach and the ocean theres a lot of creeks a lot of encampments theres just even throughout the streets and stuff like that; theres a lot to get cleaned up, said Maureen Aberts, ECOSLO volunteer.
ECOSLO officials told KSBY News that there are about 30 different clean up sites with over 1000 people who signed up to clean up across the county.
Volunteers not only collected trash but also data which goes to ECOSLO and is then shared to the California Coastal Commission and the Ocean Conservancy; that data influences local legislation.
So like the current Styrofoam ban thats in the area, we used to have a straw ban, Aberts said. A ban on smoking cigarettes in downtown SLO, like on the streets, because of the amount of cigarettes that weve been picking up in that area. So it does make, the data collected does make a difference.
Saturday morning, some volunteers tackled cleaning the Cayucos beaches.
We just came back from being out there, said Iala Teppo.
Yeah we got like one bucket full got a little muffin; were gonna go back out, added Mady Stachem.
Teppo and Stachem are Cal Poly students and tell me theyre glad to be able to do this locally.
We were looking for something to do with our parents as theyre visiting us and we would like to be outside and helping the environment so we thought this would be a good activity to do together, Teppo said.
We just wanted to get involved in the community,” Statchem said. “I love going to the beach. We love going to the beach together so just helping keep it clean and be a part of the community in that way.