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Volunteers Head To Bay Area Beaches, Shorelines For Annual Cleanup

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- California Coastal Cleanup Day is expected to draw thousands of volunteers to Bay Area beaches, shorelines, and inland waterways Saturday morning.

Volunteers toting buckets and donning gloves will be picking up trash, debris and other discarded items between 9 a.m. and noon at various sites as part of the 28th annual cleanup, which coincides with the International Coastal Cleanup.

The international cleanup effort through Ocean Conservancy will take place in more than 100 countries, making Saturday one of the largest volunteer events in the world.

The California Coastal Commission, which heads the statewide cleanup effort, recorded more than 1.3 million pounds of debris collected from all counties in 2011.

In the Bay Area, ocean advocacy group Save Our Shores is participating in the cleanup this year with 80 sites throughout Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and expects as many as 5,000 volunteers to come out.

In Oakland, the annual "Creek to Bay Day" will clean up and beautify Lake Merritt, the Oakland Estuary and creeks throughout the city.

In addition to picking up trash, volunteers in Oakland will be removing invasive plants and planting native California species, city event coordinators said.

Elsewhere in the East Bay and Alameda County, the East Bay Regional Park District is hosting cleanup sites at its various parks. Last year the park district had more than 4,100 volunteers collect 23.15 tons of garbage from 16 sites in Livermore, Hayward, Oakland, Alameda, Richmond, Martinez and elsewhere.

In Contra Costa County, Supervisor John Gioia is holding a cleanup along the San Francisco Bay shoreline in Richmond and has invited a speaker to reflect on her life living plastic-free.

Further south, the Santa Clara Valley Water District will be part of a volunteer effort at 43 Santa Clara County sites, many in San Jose and in county parks and recreation areas.

Further up the peninsula, Redwood City is sprucing up Redwood Creek along with some city streets as part of a simultaneous fall cleanup day in the city, followed by a barbecue for participants at 1400 Broadway in Redwood City.

Along the Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County a beach cleanup is scheduled at Drakes Beach between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The family-friendly community service event features a "Bling Your Bucket" competition and a pirate costume contest.

For more information about Coastal Cleanup Day, visit www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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