On Saturday, September 19th, thousands of hardworking volunteers headed to the coast or their local watersheds as part of a statewide and international effort (California Coastal Cleanup Day & International Coastal Cleanup Day) to protect coastal ecosystems and water quality by keeping trash off of our beaches and out of the water.
Across California, cleanups were held in all 58 counties, as far inland as Lake Tahoe and these coordinated efforts cleaned up thousands of pounds of trash.
In 2025, Surfrider volunteers collected 338,383 pounds (that is more than the weight of an adult blue whale!!) of trash during 1,058 cleanups that engaged 34,058 volunteers across the country.
Image: Top 10 items collected across Surfrider beach cleanups from the 2025 Beach Cleanup Annual Report.
Beach Cleanups serve a variety of functions beyond just removing trash from our beaches and coast. These events are an opportunity to raise awareness about the impact of waste-related pollution, while giving people an immediate and tangible action to take.
While we need education and want to see behavior change, we can't beach cleanup our way out of the plastic pollution problem and we need need legislative solutions to stop plastic pollution at the source and to hold polluters accountable.
The awareness cultivated during cleanups and the data collected during each cleanup informs program and policy work at Surfrider to upstream the problem and stop pollution at its source.
From Humboldt to San Diego, more than a dozen Surfrider chapters in California led cleanups up and down the coast contributing to the collective action. While cleaning up trash is satisfying in of itself, Surfrider volunteers stepped it up a notch with great food from partners (including Ocean Friendly Restaurants), beach yoga, live music, and teaming up with community partners to increase the impact and even locate areas of hidden trash by air (read on to find out how!).
Check out some of the amazing cleanups that took place along the California coast!
Find your local Surfrider chapter to get involved today.
The Humboldt Chapter and the Cal Poly Humboldt Surfrider Club teamed up with Outdoor Adventures at CalPoly Humboldt to clean by land and by water and removed 460 pounds of trash!
83 volunteers came out to clean up Ocean Beach with the San Francisco Surfrider Chapter and collected 141 pounds of trash.
More than 100 volunteers turned out for the beach cleanup with the San Mateo County Chapter and The Bloat Floaters kept the energy high for volunteers with live music.
The Santa Cruz Chapter gathered at Natural Bridges for Coastal Cleanup Day. With 167 volunteers, this was their biggest cleanup to date!
The Monterey Chapter had a record-breaking cleanup, collecting a total of 1,859 pounds of trash and recycling removed from Sand City beach. The Dune Gooneys, a local group of paragliders helped the chapter identify this hot spot of a location “Behind the Dunes” where there was a lot of trash not visible to the public. They kicked off the cleanup with rise and shine yoga!
The Ventura County Chapter removed a whopping 1,100 lbs of trash at Ormond Beach.
The South Bay, Long Beach, North Orange County, and San Diego Chapters all held cleanups as well contributing to the massive effort throughout California and around our blue planet as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day efforts!
Thank you to all of the amazing volunteers who showed up and left our beaches and coast cleaner than you found them.
If you weren't able to join a cleanup this time around, it's not too late! Find your local chapter and be part of the solution.
You can find the results of the Coastal Cleanup Day events and more at our cleanups database.