Berkeleyside33%
5 trash cleanup volunteer groups you can join in Berkeley 31%
By Hope Muñoz13%
7/16/2026, 9:22:45 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Negativity Bias, and Availability Heuristic, with Indoctrination as the most egregious example at 15.5% saturation with 233 hits. Analysis detected 1,400 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,504 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 40.6% and a BS Rank of 31% (12,409 of 17,815 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 69.70% of the article peer group.
Each year, thousands and thousands of pounds of trash accumulate across Berkeley.
Candy wrappers, cigarette butts, plastic bottles, old shoes, chairs, sofas, washing machines.
Illegal dumping tends to spike during Cal Move Out, despite a popular furniture reuse program — but it’s a problem everywhere from the Berkeley Marina to homeless encampments (often from people living elsewhere) to empty lots in West Berkeley to Grizzly Peak in the hills.
The city notes dumping is punishable by fines up to $500 a day and urges residents to report it online and to avoid it by reusing or recycling unwanted items, dropping off garbage at the Berkeley Transfer Station or calling ahead to request extra pickups or to borrow a dumpster.
When illegal dumping does occur, Berkeley law says it’s ultimately property owners’ responsibility to clear trash abutting their property — not the city’s — though the public works department collaborates with business districts to remove unattended property and clear litter.
The remaining refuse has attracted a few lone trash vigilantes like Lars Benson, who cleaned up garbage four nights a week for over a decade on the Cal campus.
But the problem is more often addressed through volunteer groups and major cleanup events.
Tired of spotting trash around town?
Here are five groups you can join.
**Recent college grad starts a group to clean up south Shattuck Avenue**
Walking from her south Berkeley home to her restaurant job in downtown Berkeley, Izzy Lafountain became bothered by how much litter and debris were cluttering up south Shattuck Avenue.
The trash inspired her to take action.
After struggling to find groups focused on trash pickups in the corridor, she decided to create one of her own.
In March, Lafountain reached out to Councilmember Ben Bartlett’s office, and his staff helped her get trash bags and grabbers, and arranged for the city to pick up the garbage once gathered.
The following month, she gathered a group of eight, which met at Berkeley Bowl and walked around south Shattuck Avenue picking up trash.
Along the way, they picked up all types of litter: food wrappers, cups, cardboard boxes.
Most surprising, Lafountain notes, was how they found trash stuffed in old newspaper boxes in front of Walgreens.
“I just really wanted to meet people around my neighborhood and my community and felt like building a sense of togetherness,” said Lafountain, a Berkeley native who moved back to town last August after graduating from UC Santa Cruz.
“It's such a small act that we can all do that doesn’t take [so] much time or effort.”
Lafountain has held three cleanups so far and is still recruiting volunteers.
Her last two meetups saw a spike in attendance at 15 and a drop to five.
Currently, she hosts monthly cleanups and is hoping to do so more frequently in the future.
**How to get involved:** Reach out via Instagram, Facebook or email shattuck.cleanup@gmail.com.
If you see trash piling up on or near south Shattuck, Lafountain asks you give her a heads up.
**City holds monthly waterfront cleanups, and a big annual Coastal Cleanup Day is coming up in September**
On the third Saturday of each month, Berkeley’s parks department hosts cleanups with supplies provided at the waterfront and Aquatic Park.
Individuals, families or groups can volunteer.
The day kicks off with a presentation at Shorebird Park Nature Center about the impacts of non-biodegradable plastic in the ocean and how to correctly remove it.
Afterward, volunteers gear up with gloves, buckets and maps to find the hottest trash spots along the shoreline.
People can stay for as long, or as short a time as they would like.
Upon completion, the trash is brought back to the nature center, where it is weighed and sorted.
On average, 10-100 volunteers attend, depending on the weather, according to Scott Ferris, the city’s parks director.
Last year, he said, the monthly cleanups collected 5,790 pounds of trash and 171 pounds of recycled materials.
Plastic bottle caps and straws are the most common items found.
During the pandemic, lots of personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, was found strewn about.
In addition to the monthly cleanups, the city works with small volunteer groups, such as schools and businesses, to hold an average of 10 off-cycle cleanups per year.
In 2025, they collected 270 pounds of garbage and 92 pounds of recyclables, Ferris said.
The biggest event of the year tends to be California’s annual Coastal Cleanup Day in September, which sees an average of 500-600 participants.
In 2022, volunteers gathered more than 2,300 pounds of trash from the Berkeley Marina.
**How to get involved:** Advance registration is recommended for groups of five or more at the monthly cleanups.
Small groups and solo-trash getters can register upon arrival.
Learn more about the 2026 California Coastal Cleanup Day, from 9-11 a.m. on Sept. 19, and register your group on the city website.
**Berkeley Project, a UC Berkeley volunteer organization, hosts an annual cleanup day and other events**
The Berkeley Project was founded in 2006 and is now UC Berkeley’s largest volunteer organization.
The organization has scattered opportunities during the academic year, ranging from litter pickup to landscaping to gardening.
The main event is Berkeley Project Day, a semi-annual event that recruits over 1,500 volunteers to help around town.
In addition to picking up trash and litter, the group paints murals, cleans up gardens, deep cleans community centers and more.
**How to get involved:** Reach out to volunteer@berkeleyproject.org, follow the group on TikTok or visit their Snoopy-themed Instagram account for updates.
Anyone can volunteer, regardless of their UC Berkeley affiliation.
Visit their website or sign up for their newsletter for more information or to donate.
**Urban Compassion Project cleans up illegally dumped trash and advocates for homeless residents**
Urban Compassion Project is an Oakland-based group that picks up trash across the East Bay, including multiple cleanups in Berkeley in recent years.
On May 9, the nonprofit reported that 55 volunteers had pitched in to clear 16,000 pounds of refuse from 1331 Second St. and another site in Berkeley.
The group has recently faced turmoil, with the nonprofit’s board accusing its founder of misusing business funds for personal benefit and the founder resigning and suing the nonprofit, saying he was wrongfully pushed out.
But its work clearing over a million pounds of trash a year from streets, parks and waterways continues.
The nonprofit was launched in 2021 with a goal of clearing trash — often illegally dumped in public places and around encampments, and conducting outreach to and advocacy for unhoused residents.
In addition to cleanups, it pays homeless “ambassadors” $100 a week to keep their surroundings neat and provides weekly resource distributions of essential items including meals and hygiene products.
**How to get involved:** Check the group’s website or connect via Instagram or TikTok.
You can also call 510-600-3464 or email info@urbancompassionproject.org.
**East Bay Trash Pandas was started by a Berkeley resident concerned about trash on Grizzly Peak**
Berkeley resident John Kirkham founded the East Bay Trash Pandas in 2023 after seeing trash pile up around Grizzly Peak Boulevard, a place in the Berkeley Hills known for its picturesque views of the bay that’s also become a magnet for illegal dumping.
Kirkham had no previous experience organizing cleanups — or with political action of any kind.
But he was inspired by other prominent local trash cleanup groups, most notably the ones led by a local Reddit user who posts under the name “pengweather.”
The Trash Pandas slowly gained members (including a few rock climbers able to scale steep slopes) and notoriety, with donations such as trash grabbers and high-visibility vests coming in soon after the group’s inception.
Today, the group has bagged over 37 tons of trash and hosted dozens of cleanups at Grizzly Peak, Point Isabel, Coyote Creek and Albany Marsh.
At times, Kirkham and his group have felt as if their work is “enabling institutional incompetence.”
He’s been frustrated by the jurisdictional morass of Grizzly Peak (it’s a complicated patchwork of Berkeley, Oakland, East Bay park district and UC Berkeley land.)
In 2024, after lobbying from the Trash Pandas, UC Berkeley and the city of Oakland agreed to make a concerted effort to better address litter and dumping on Grizzly Peak.
In an email to Berkeleyside, Kirkham said the city of Berkeley’s failure to build affordable housing for working-age residents has resulted in the degradation of Grizzly Peak, Albany Marsh and other common areas.
“Without a robust community of working-age people out and about in our shared spaces, they wither and die,” he said.
“Myself and my volunteers are trying our best, but unless and until we build several thousand units of affordable housing for Berkeley's long-term residents, we'll never put a stop to the trash.”
**How to get involved:** Fill out an online volunteer form, connect via Instagram, donate Amazon wishlist items or send cash via Venmo.
Natalie Orenstein and Callie Rhoades contributed reporting to this story.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.