Oregon chapters started the year off strong, hosting three cleanups in January! Through this collective effort, 140 volunteers collected 866 lbs of trash from our beaches, rivers, and bioswales.
Our Coos Bay Chapter kicked things off with their annual New Year’s Day cleanup at Bastendorff Beach, where 46 volunteers braved the rain to clear roughly 400 lbs of trash off the sandy shore after the NYE festivities. South Coast folks turned out in force to clear trash by the bucketful, and even the car-full, to make sure it didn’t end up in the ocean! The top five items collected included foam fragments, plastic fragments, and cigarette butts. Check out our cleanup database for more information on what types of trash we find at cleanups. Data collection is a powerful tool that we can use to help inform policy such as single-use plastic bans – for more on our legislative efforts this year, hop on over to our legislative page to see what we’re fighting for in Oregon and how you can help!
Snapshot of the top five items collected during Surfrider Coos Bay’s New Year’s Day beach cleanup
Next, the North Coast Chapter partnered with our friends at Fort George Brewery to bring back the Astoria Riverwalk Cleanup on January 18th. After meeting up at the Bier Pier to collect supplies, volunteers headed out to pick up trash as they walked along the river. All in, 24 volunteers (plus three dogs!) collected 250 lbs of trash from the shores of the Columbia! Afterwards, cleanup champs enjoyed a free craft bev at Fort George. We are so grateful for our partnership with this amazing local brewery, which donates 1% of proceeds from their Short Sands Lager to the North Coast Chapter! These donations directly fund water quality testing and allow us to purchase cleanup gear so we can keep the North Coast beautiful.
Finally, the Portland Chapter honored the spirit and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during their fifth annual MLK Day cleanup on January 20th. The sunny day of service attracted their largest crowd yet, with 70 volunteers collecting 216 lbs of trash from MLK Jr Blvd and its many bioswales. Volunteers also collected over 4,000 cigarette butts in just two hours! These inland cleanups are essential to preventing the flow of trash and plastics into our rivers, streams, and storm drains, and eventually to the ocean. Special thanks to Woofter Bolch Architecture for sponsoring coffee and donuts for our cleanup crew! Check out a video recap of the day over IG.
A HUGE thank you to all of the fabulous volunteers who turned out to make these cleanups a success! We couldn’t do it without you! While that may have been the longest January in history, and things are feeling tough right now, by participating in cleanups like this you are directly making a difference in your communities. As we move forward, let’s continue to hold each other close, celebrate when we can, and build a powerful movement for good.
Want to join in the fun? Up next is a slew of Earth Month cleanups in April! To stay up to date with what your local chapter has planned, visit volunteer.surfrider.org and search by keyword or zip code.