I Love A Clean San Diego installs temporary trash and recycling bins to ensure beaches stay clean over long summer holiday weekends.

One of the best ways people choose to spend their summer holidays is on the beach—especially in sunny San Diego. During the summer holiday season, families and friends flock to the coast. In response to the influx of locals and tourists, I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) and the San Diego Clean Beach Coalition (SDCBC) place 200 temporary trash and recycling bins along some of the city’s busiest beaches to reduce the amount of beach and marine litter.

Over the past decade, SDCBC has kept 3.5 million pounds of trash off beaches and out of the ocean. This past year, over 61,000 pounds of debris were collected during the summer holiday weekends. With the support of Think Blue San Diego, PB Shore Club, ILACSD, and FreePB, SDCBC aims to educate beachgoers about the benefits of swapping reusable alternatives for single-use products.

How can you make the most out of your weekends while staying sustainable? SDCBC recommends that visitors bring hard plastic coolers, refillable water bottles, and food storage containers to reduce the amount of disposables items brought to the beach. It also suggests avoiding plastic straws and utensils, and ensuring all recyclables are clean, dry, and empty. Spend less time worrying about your waste by visiting ILACSD’s zero waste database, WasteFreeSD.org, for everything you need to know about reusable options.

SDCBC’s goal is to ensure that the safety of the community and the ecosystem is not compromised by the impact of litter. With the easily accessible Clean Beach Coalition bins, visitors are able to responsibly throw away and recycle their waste while still enjoying their vacations. Even at the most crowded beaches, people will still be able to enjoy the sun, sand, and the ocean in San Diego.

By recognizing the impact that waste has on water ecosystems, San Diegans are better prepared to act wisely when it comes to waste, especially during the summer holidays.