Coastal Cleanup 2020 was a new and exciting adventure for coordinators throughout the state, and here in Napa County was no different. We’ve done one-day, in-person cleanups here for 21 years, but have never asked our residents to do a cleanup and report their data on their own. We were very pleased with the participation from all of you here in Napa County!
Since we didn’t meet in person and couldn’t record data for people, we asked participants to record their cleanup results in the CleanSwell app, which was designed by the Ocean Conservancy for cleanups around the world. During the month of September, we had 141 people report their cleanup results in the app. That number blew away expectations, and we’re sure there are some people that did casual cleanups while walking through their neighborhoods without entering data into the app. We also had a lot of people borrow cleanup supplies- buckets and trash grabbers- for their weekend cleanups.
The fun thing about the CleanSwell app and the Ocean Conservancy’s TIDES database is that we can focus in on very specific data, and we can see that data as it is entered in real time. We can narrow down the data results to just Napa County, just one group, or even one location within our county. By doing this, we can see what the most common items were, how many pieces of trash were picked up, how many people participated, distance cleaned, and much more.
This year, our 141 recorded participants picked up 632.41 pounds of trash over 11.49 miles. All those people combined picked up about 7,744 individual pieces of trash. That’s 55 pieces of trash per person!
Cigarette butts are, unfortunately, always within the top ten items found in Napa County. Due to COVID-19, we expected to see many masks and gloves and other personal protective equipment, and those items came in at number 9 on our list. Check it out:
Top Ten Items Found in Napa County
Cigarette Butts- 1,913
Other Trash (a catch-all for things that don’t fit in specified categories)- 1,195
Food Wrappers- 948
Plastic Bottle Caps- 263
Plastic Bottles- 236
Grocery Bags- 212
Glass Bottles- 151
Straws and Coffee Stirrers- 147
Gloves & Masks- 136
Beverage Cans- 132
Many thanks to all who helped us Keep Napa Clean during Coastal Cleanup 2020! And don’t forget- you don’t have to wait for September to do a cleanup! Every day is a good day to keep our streets and creeks clean and free of trash!
Keep your eyes open, as we hope to soon welcome groups of volunteers back into the field in limited numbers. If you have any questions about cleanups or other volunteer events, please contact [email protected]
Bob Zlomke and Bernhard Krevet of Friends of the Napa River talk about the importance of keeping our Napa River clean.