With gloved hands, litter-pickers and trash bags, Pinole volunteers clean up the coastline

Volunteers trickled into Pinole’s Bayfront Park Saturday morning, signing in, receiving cleanup instructions, grabbing plastic bags and heading for the shoreline.

The gathering was part of California Coastal Cleanup Day, a statewide effort organized by the California Coastal Commission that brings volunteers together to remove trash from waterways throughout the state. 

In Pinole, about 80 or so people joined in the cleanup, organized by the city and the Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed. That was fewer than last year, when 146 volunteers showed up at Bayfront Park. But for organizers, the participation of younger residents, children and high-school students was significant. 

“We don’t want everybody to have gray hair at the Friends of Pinole Creek,” said Paula Jarvis, a longtime member.

Participation from teenagers, including the Pinole Valley High School Kiwanis Club, has been crucial to keeping the shoreline clean, said Mike Buono, also with the watershed group.

“It’s probably the biggest impact when high school kids come out, when they care, because their friends are less likely to throw fast food or trash on the ground now,” he said.  “It leads to a cleaner community, even if they’re not all here participating.”

Volunteers worked their way through the park, gripping large plastic bags with blue latex-gloved hands. Some carried long litter-pickers to explore the grassy areas, while others walked along the shoreline where the dirt meets the bay. Parents paused along the way to re-apply sunscreen to their children, then resumed picking up dog waste bags, food wrappers, bottles, and tiny pieces of plastic.

Filling trash bag after trash bag, the crew picked up about 288 pounds of debris.

This year marks the 42nd annual California Coastal Cleanup Day. Last year, over 36,000 volunteers across California collected 320,000 pounds of trash, with the Pinole Bayfront Park cleanup contributing over 1,000 pounds to the total weigh-in. Eight other Contra Costa County cities hosted cleanups this year, including Richmond, San Pablo, Martinez and Concord.

Families with young children made up a large part of the Pinole crowd. Robyn Bergunio, who attended with her daughter, said the effort is all about conservation.

“It shows that we love where we came from, we’re giving back, and we’re making sure our future generations can still enjoy it.”

Whether for environmental conservation or community spirit, volunteers said the cleanup is a way for residents to become more connected to the place they call home. 

For longtime residents, the event offers a way to measure how Bayfront Park has changed over the years. Many have noticed less trash, which could be evidence that years of regular cleanups are having an effect. 

“I can be a cynic and assume that it’s all washed out into the bay already or be optimistic that this is working,” said Roxanne Bowers, a member of the watershed group, who went out on a kayak expecting to collect at least two bags of trash, only to fill about a quarter of a bag.

“The education, getting the community involved, reducing what ends up on the streets, in our gutters, maybe it’s working.”

(Top photo: Robyn Bergunio and her daughter pick up trash along the coastline at Bayfront Park.)

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