LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – For 40 years, people have been cleaning up California’s coastal and inland waterways as part of the country’s largest annual volunteer event. Each September, volunteers remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from the state’s beaches, lakes, and waterways as part of California Coastal Cleanup Day.

This year, the cleanup day has a special theme – Trashure Hunt!

Those in the Lake Tahoe and Alpine County area have a chance to join in on Saturday, September 20:

Tahoe Keys Marsh and Beach – 10 a.m. to noon – Led by the Sierra Nevada Alliance. Sign up and get more information by visiting HERE.

Lam Watah Nature Trail – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Led by Keep Tahoe Blue. To sign up and get more information, visit HERE.

Incline Village (meet at Recreation Center for assignment) – 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. To sign up and get more information, visit HERE.

Alpine County – Contact the Sierra Nevada Alliance for sign-up and location information. greatsierrarivercleanup@sierranevadaalliance.org

California’s event is also part of the International Coastal Cleanup organized by the Ocean Conservancy. Last year, more than 47,000 volunteers removed over 400,000 pounds, or 200 tons, of trash and recyclables from our waterways, beaches and lakes. In addition to individual volunteers, 40 boating facilities and groups participated with 1,391 volunteers collecting 9,745 pounds of trash and recyclables on land and from 95 kayaks, canoes and dinghies.

New this year, California Coastal Cleanup Day will become the world’s largest scavenger hunt. Special “trashure” items will be hidden at cleanup sites across the state. Volunteers finding one of these items can redeem them for valuable prizes!

The event also provides hands-on educational experiences about the damage that trash, especially single-use disposable plastics, can cause to California’s wildlife, economy and human health. According to past cleanup data, 75 percent of the debris volunteers remove is composed of plastic, a material that never completely biodegrades and has numerous harmful consequences in the environment. Plastic debris can kill wildlife, leach toxins into the environment and introduce them into the food chain.

To join this statewide effort, the California Coastal Commission has an interactive map of cleanup locations throughout the state, available here. Volunteers can check the website for updates and share their cleanup experiences on social media using the hashtag #coastalcleanupday.

For more information on Trashure Hunt, visit HERE.