PRESS RELEASE

Above: The City of Long Beach hosts a past California Coastal Cleanup Day near Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier.

UPDATED: The below press release was updated on Sept. 11 with updates to the list of Long Beach cleanup sites for this year’s California Coastal Cleanup Day. There will no longer be a cleanup activation at the Peninsula (72nd Place and East Ocean Boulevard). Site Captains from the Aquarium of the Pacific will now co-lead the cleanup activation at Shoreline Park (700 E. Shoreline Dr.).

Long Beach, CA – The City of Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (PRM) invites neighbors, families and friends across Long Beach to come together for the 42nd Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day. This longtime annual event serves as an opportunity for the community to make a positive impact by helping keep local beaches and marinas clean, healthy and thriving. This year’s cleanup will take place Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, from 9 a.m. to noon, at nine locations in Long Beach.

“We invite our Long Beach community to join this year’s California Coastal Cleanup Day and help care for the shoreline we all cherish,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “This year is especially meaningful as communities across California commemorate 50 years of the California Coastal Act and its Commission that has been dedicated to protecting our coast over the last five decades. Coming together for this cleanup is a powerful way to honor that legacy and ensure our beaches and marinas remain vibrant, healthy spaces for generations to come.”

Led by the California Coastal Commission, this year’s California Coastal Cleanup Day will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the California Coastal Act, a landmark legislation that established the California Coastal Commission to regulate land and water use along the state’s 1,100-mile shoreline by maximizing public access, protecting marine habitats and regulating land development within the legally defined Coastal Zone. Long Beach has long served as one of the main locations for California Coastal Cleanup Day. This year PRM and its local partners are expanding the cleanup’s footprint by adding five cleanup locations this year along the coastline and interior beaches—doubling the number of cleanups offered from last year.

Long Beach PRM, in collaboration with the California Coastal Commission and the below community partners, will host cleanups at:

• Alamitos Bay Marina (255 N. Marina Dr.) – Led by Seal Beach Yacht Club
• Alamitos Beach* (380 E. Shoreline Dr.) – Led by Ocean Conservancy
• Belmont Pier (3998 E. Allin St.) – Led by Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine El Dorado Nature Center’s Adopt-A-Beach Program
• Bluff Park (Intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue) – Led by Department of Public Works Litter Free LB and Bluff Park Neighborhood Association
• Junipero Beach (2100 E. Ocean Blvd.) – Led by LA Water Keeper
• MacArthur Park (1321 E. Anaheim St.) – Led by Department of Public Works Litter Free LB and CLIMB Central LB
• Mother's Beach (5839 Appian Way) – Led by Algalita
• Shoreline Park (700 E. Shoreline Dr.) – Led by Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine and Aquarium of the Pacific
• Rainbow Harbor (212 Golden Shore) – Led by Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine

In addition to engaging volunteers in the cleanup, each volunteer site will feature unique activities, educational components and giveaways provided by each of the site captains. Gloves and trash bags will be provided to volunteers across all sites, though participants are encouraged to bring their own reusable supplies, such as work gloves, buckets and grabbers to limit waste.

Volunteers are encouraged to submit a volunteer waiver prior to the event, however paper copies will be available on the day of the cleanup. Volunteers under 16 years of age will require a parental or caregiver signature. Parking will be free to volunteers in the nearest beach lot for the duration of the event.

*Ocean Conservancy will host the Alamitos Beach cleanup site as part of its 41st Annual International Coastal Cleanup. The event will feature USA Artistic Swimming athletes and other special activations as part of the City's 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games planning efforts and Ocean Conservancy's Protect Where We Play initiative. Come summer 2028, Alamitos Beach will serve as the site for Olympic Beach Volleyball and Paralympic Blind Football. Activating this space underscores the City’s commitment to preparing for the 2028 Games, building a lasting legacy and encouraging the community to join in the effort.

Last year, more than 950 Long Beach volunteers removed over 2,375 pounds of debris in just three hours.

For more information, please contact the El Dorado Nature Center at 562.570.1745 or visit lbcity.info/naturecenterevents. Discover PRM’s full lineup of parks, facilities, programs and services available for the Long Beach community at LBParks.org.

About the City of Long Beach
Long Beach is nestled along the Southern California coast and home to approximately 466,000 people. As an award-winning full-service charter city, Long Beach offers the amenities of a metropolitan city while maintaining a strong sense of individual and diverse neighborhoods, culture and community. With a bustling downtown and over six miles of scenic beaches, Long Beach is a renowned tourist and business destination and home to the iconic Queen Mary, nationally recognized Aquarium of the Pacific and Long Beach Airport, award-winning Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center and world-class Port of Long Beach.

For more information about the City of Long Beach, visit longbeach.gov/. Follow us on social to keep up with the latest news: Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. More information about the Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine is available at LBParks.org and by following us @LongBeachParks on Facebook, Instagram and X.