San Pablo Zero Litter Project
By: Earth Team Interns at Richmond High School
Who is Earth Team?
Earth Team Richmond is made up of 12 youth
interns from Richmond High School.
The majority of the interns joined Earth Team to
educate themselves about the environment and
to help make their community a cleaner and
safer place.
“I joined Earth Team to be productive, to help my
environment, and educate myself”
-Sheilayjah Sharper, 2021-2022
Why We Started This Project..
We were determined to help our community!
We conducted a visual assessment along 23rd
street. We noticed that there was a lot of litter,
few trash cans on sidewalks, few street trees,
and limited open space for children to play.
This inspired the initiative for change for the
younger generations and others in our
community.
Map of Project Area
Our focus for this project is directed along
23rd Street and Davis Park because of the
impact these areas have on the community
and watershed.
23rd street is a very busy, major street in the
cities of San Pablo & Richmond.
Davis Park is home to native tree and plant
species as well as a portion of Wildcat Creek.
We believe in the importance of having a
clean and healthy community as it is
essential to the wellbeing of our planet.
Completed litter assessments
Future assessment sites
The Problem We
Are Addressing The problem we are facing
is an abundance of litter
along 23rd Street. This is
significant because this
street intersects Wildcat
Creek, our local watershed.
Our Project Goals
● Understand how much litter and
what type of litter is present along
23rd Street
● Conduct 3 litter assessments per
month
● Educate our peers about marine
debris and plastic waste
● Encourage our peers and community
members to join us for litter cleanups
● Host a community event with the City
of San Pablo
Research Methods Using a trash monitoring protocol
for urban streets and the Marine
Debris Tracker app helped us to
record the land use, amount of
litter (count, volume, and weight),
type of litter collected (including
brand), number of public waste
bins, and storm drain locations
Talley, T.S., N. Venuti. 2022. A trash monitoring protocol for urban streets.
Developed by California Sea Grant for the NOAA Marine Debris Division.
Research Methods Continued
Before Litter Assessment After Litter Assessment ● We completed six litter assessments between February 17th and April 23rd. ● Before starting each litter assessment, participants were provided with gloves, trash grabbers, trash bags, data sheets. Before and after pictures were taken to document visual changes.
● Each litter assessment took approximately 2 hours to complete.
Location: Between
Emeric Ave and
Pine Ave.
Location:
Between
Bush Ave and
Market Ave.
Location: Northwest corner of Market Ave and 23rd street Sorting Litter, Measuring Volume and Weight
Campus Outreach and Education
One of our goals for this project was to educate our peers about how to properly dispose of trash.
To do so, we set up a table during lunch on Earth Day, where students participated in educational games, like a three bin sorting game. 6 Community Input
We sought community input for our project by
asking RHS students and volunteers to respond to
survey questions about local environmental issues.
Earth day litter cleanup at Davis Park
with Earth Teams from Richmond,
Pinole and local San Pablo Residents.
The Results of Our
Litter Assessments
Areas of Concern
on 23rd Street
Market - Dover
Storm drains: 2
Residential: 2
Commercial business: 6
Trash cans: 5
Recycling bins: 5
Bush - Market
Storm drains: 1
Residential: 1
Commercial business: 6
Trash cans: 1
Recycling bins: 0
Pine - Bush
Storm drains: 1
Residential: 5
Commercial business: 4
Trash cans: 0
Recycling bins: 0
Emeric - Pine
Storm drains: 0
Residential: 2
Commercial business: 1
Trash cans: 0
Recycling bins: 0
5,674
Pieces of litter631
Pieces of litter
436
Pieces of litter
406
Pieces of litter
1,035
Pieces of litter
Plastic and paper make up the large majority of the litter we collected
10,486
Total Pieces of Litter Collected and Logged
514.5 lbs
Total Weight of Litter Collected
1,007 gal
Total Volume of Litter Collected
3,007
Total number of cigarette butts counted
and collected!!
A pile of cigarettes we
cleaned up outside a
bar on 23rd St.
Cigarette butts are
small and end up
on curb edges, in
plants, or sidewalk
cracks
5 out of 15
of the most commonly found litter items were
single-use plastic foodware items.
● Plastic Food Wrappers
● Plastic Utensils
● Plastic bottle caps
● Styrofoam and plastic cups
● Straws
Most Common Brands Littered
Brands we found during each litter assessment included:
Starbucks
McDonald’s
Corona
Slim Jim
Camel
Marlboro
Amazon packaging
Recommendations for Consideration
● Install, or work with business owners to install, cigarette disposal bins.
● Create a city-wide cigarette tax that could fund future litter cleanup efforts
● Create a city ordinance that bans single use plastic foodware items such as forks, spoons, and straws.
● Increase the number of trash and recycling bins near
convenience stores, bus stops, and Richmond High School ● Continue funding projects like ours and provide funding for more frequent community litter cleanup events
● Fund outreach and education programs that focus on
reducing plastic waste
● Consider plans for creating more accessible, green outdoor spaces such as community gardens and playgrounds.
Cost: $28/bin
Conclusion
● It was surprising for us to learn how much
trash there is in such a short distance!
● Community members were overall grateful
to see someone clean up the streets
● We hope that more community members
will get involved in future clean ups
● We would like to see more trash cans and
cigarette disposal bins along 23rd Street,
especially at bus stops and outside of bars
and liquor stores.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to listen to the concerns of everyone on the team and the residents here. We are very appreciative for the support that the City of San Pablo has given us through funding and collaboration on community events such as Earth Day! We look forward to spending more time helping our community.
Photography by interns: Myleyby Mora and Andy Arguello Arauz