Santa Barbara volunteers back in-person for this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Masks have become a major part of our country's litter problem throughout the pandemic.

On Saturday, volunteers from across Santa Barbara County got together to fix that problem.

Teams gathered in-person for the first time in two years for the state's annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

The mission was organized by Explore Ecology, an environmental education nonprofit that led 28 cleanups stretching from Guadalupe to Carpinteria.

Here at Santa Barbara's East Beach, volunteers picked up plenty of trash from cigarette butts and bottle caps to plastic utensils.

"Today we’re out focused on micro trash and preventing micro trash from entering waterways in the channel," said volunteer Laura Sanchez.

“More and more pollution is accumulating and then you’re going to be eating that pollution, so not it's only affecting the ecosystem but also affecting you,” said volunteer Hannah Karlsrud.

Back in 2019, volunteers throughout California picked up more than 900,000 pounds of trash on Coastal Cleanup Day.

This year's cleanup day also kicks off the county's 22nd Annual Creek Week.

Creek Week is a celebration of local creeks, watersheds and the ocean, with many local organizations hosting events to help build awareness and stewardship of the natural treasures of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and throughout the county.

This year, Creek Week is taking place from Sept. 18 to Sept. 25.

For the full schedule of events taking place this Creek Week, click here.