Saturday morning, Santa Barbara County does its annual inventory of the ocean's leftovers. Coastal Cleanup Day runs 9 a.m. to noon on September 19 at sites stretching from Rincon to Jalama, and this year marks the 42nd annual event.
Explore Ecology runs it locally with the County of Santa Barbara Resource Recovery and Waste Management Department, with support from the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Solvang. The California Coastal Commission organizes the statewide day; the Ocean Conservancy runs the international one.
The reason volunteers write things down is the point. Every item recorded on the paper tally sheets feeds a statewide dataset tracking which plastics reach the ocean, so a cigarette butt logged at Leadbetter Beach becomes a data point in Sacramento. Last year, volunteers in Santa Barbara County picked up more than 1.8 tons of litter from coastal and inland sites, much of it plastic, according to Explore Ecology's organizer figures as published by the Independent. Statewide, those same organizer figures put more than 1.6 million volunteers and 26 million pounds removed since California's first cleanup in 1985.
Joining takes little planning. Pick a site at exploreecology.org/coastal-cleanup-day, show up at 9 a.m., and sign a waiver — either on the spot or one downloaded in advance. Pre-registration is not required but is encouraged, and everyone who registers is entered in a prize drawing. Site captains hand out bags and gloves; volunteers are asked to bring reusable gloves, buckets, and water bottles to cut the event's own plastic footprint.
There are sites in nearly every corner of the county. In Santa Barbara: Alameda Park, Arroyo Burro (Hendry's) Beach, East Beach at Garden and Chase Palm, the East Beach volleyball courts, Oak Park, Shoreline Park, West Beach, and the Sandspit, Harbor, and parking lot. Montecito has Butterfly Beach — meeting point on Channel Drive, across from the Biltmore — and Miramar Beach. Goleta and Isla Vista have Campus Point at UCSB, Devereux Beach and Devereux Creek, Ellwood Beach and the bluffs, Goleta Beach, Lake Los Carneros at Stow House, Phelps Creek and the North Campus Open Space, and the Isla Vista streets. Carpinteria and Summerland bring the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Preserve, Carpinteria State Beach and City Beach, Jelly Bowl Beach, Tar Pits Park, Lookout Park, Loon Point, Santa Claus Lane, and Rincon County Beach at Bates. North county sites include El Capitan, Refugio, Jalama, Surf Beach in Lompoc, and the Santa Ynez River at the Alisal Road bridge in Solvang.
Some practical notes that vary by site. At several City locations — East Beach, Leadbetter, West Beach, and the Harbor — parking is free from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for volunteers displaying a Coastal Cleanup Day voucher, available from the site captain. At El Capitan and Refugio, ask the parking attendant for a free pass rather than the captain. Jalama has no cell service. Several sites, including Butterfly Beach, Hammond's, and Shoreline Park, require stairs or uneven footing to reach the sand; Arroyo Burro has beach wheelchairs on a first-come basis.
One site is not open to the public: the Santa Cruz Island cleanup is a private event run by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Volunteers who want to clean up a spot that is not on the list can write to the cleanup coordinator, and the organizers say they will try to add it.
If Saturday does not work, September still counts. Explore Ecology asks anyone doing a solo cleanup during the month to record findings in the Clean Swell app with location services on and Explore Ecology set as the group name, so the trash still lands in the statewide dataset. Students who need community service hours can bring their forms and have a site captain sign them after the cleanup.
What to bring: closed-toe shoes, sun protection, a reusable water bottle, and layered clothing for the sites that catch wind. What not to worry about: supplies, which the captains bring.
Sources: Explore Ecology Coastal Cleanup Day site list and participation details; The Santa Barbara Independent, August 19, 2026, publishing Explore Ecology's organizer release on the county event and last year's results.