Twin brothers make a clean sweep of Santa Barbara neighborhoods picking up bags of trash each week

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - If you have noticed some beaches, trails and parking turnouts a little bit cleaner this summer, it might be because Noah and Ramon Wang have been in the area.

The twin 16-year-old Santa Barbara High School boys took up a summer cleanup project to bag trash they have seen in countless areas.

They started when the school year wrapped up on June 7.

They are getting school credit for volunteer hours, in a program coordinated through the non-profit environmental group, Channelkeeper.

Every day they have gone out and have documented their efforts.

At last count it has been at least 182 bags of trash with the number going up daily.

In real weight, it is nearly 1,029 pounds and climbing.

Their mother Chiyan Wang is a motivator but the boys are clearly driven by taking on difficult areas and making a difference.

They have been in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria daily, including weekends.

This started out as an extra credit project at Santa Barbara High where they attend by volunteering to help ChannelKeeper with its beach and creek cleanup efforts.

Noah Wang said, they go, "wherever you want  and pick up trash wherever you want, and just report back to (Channelkeeper) the hours and the number of bags."

They are now into their 40th day well beyond the credit requirement.

"On average we do six hours,  sometimes we go to eight hours or nine hours if we feel like it or if there's enough trash to clean up," said Noah.

On lower San Marcos pass they were deep into the dry grass. Noah said they go, "way off the trail to get a Gatorade bottle or something."

Ramon said, "the most common items we get are cigarettes, beer bottles,  plastic bottles and microplastics."

The most shocking location was behind a beach front wall at Miramar beach in Montecito.
Ramon said, "we got around nine bags a day and we worked there for four days straight." They said after the trash was bagged, it took them about three hours to haul out all the trash up to a pick up spot.

Asked what they thought led to all the trash, Ramon said he was assuming "that people are holding parties there and just throw the trash across the sea wall and  just leave it there."

This effort caught the eye of the San Marcos Preserve group and a passing park ranger who said more trash cans were being added.

So far they have logged 261 hours, with 182 bags of trash,  weighing over 1000 pounds and have put in over 250 miles. The brothers go out seven days a week.

Ramon said, "we're cleaning up, it doesn't feel that bad.  It's still satisfying and it's something we want to do.  It's definitely something we don't want to stop doing."

On the road to the San Marcos Preserve they picked up 21 bags of trash in the general area over two days.

Noah said, "I really enjoy helping other people.  When I help out the community I myself am happy."

Chiyan Wang has been posting about the teens efforts on her Facebook page. Some residents have offered to join in on some of the cleanup efforts.