Local Earth Day event goes virtual, again, with some in-person activities
Organizers for Solano County’s annual Earth Day Cleanup will host a weeklong digital celebration for the 2021 event.
The virtual event will feature a different community trash cleanup group every day and provide “simple and sustainable solutions” Solano County residents can use to have local and global impacts, Marianne Butler, of the Solano Resource Conservation District and cleanup coordinator, wrote in a press release issued Monday.
The week will end April 24, a Saturday, with a volunteer trash cleanup in honor of Earth Day, April 22. Volunteers can use the CleanSwell mobile app to track their trash collection data, she added in the prepared statement.
Earth Day started 51 years ago in response to alarming environmental concerns raised by national activists. Now a worldwide event, it is themed “Restore Our Earth” this year.
Solano County residents are encouraged to take local action in order to have a global impact, Butler said.
Virtual activities will take place on CleanupSolano.org and on the Cleanupsolano Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts (@cleanupsolano). If interested, county residents are asked to participate in a voluntary trash cleanup at a time and location of their choosing.
Virtual activities will be shared on CleanupSolano’s website and social media platforms from April 19 to 24. Residents are encouraged to participate in a voluntary trash cleanup any time on April 24.
Solano County and its cities host an in-person Earth Day Cleanup every year. The in-person event was canceled in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was replaced with a weeklong virtual celebration, noted Butler.
With the pandemic continuing, organizers are again offering the weeklong digital event but also encourage residents to conduct independent trash cleanups in lieu of coordinated cleanup efforts at designated locations.
CleanupSolano is Solano County’s official platform for promoting countywide community cleanups, including the Solano County Earth Day Cleanup (the third Saturday of April), World Environment Day Cleanup (first Saturday of June), and Solano County Coastal Cleanup Day (third Saturday of September).
The cleanups are coordinated at the county level by Solano RCD on behalf of the
Solano County Department of Resource Management and are funded through the CalRecycle Beverage Container City/County Payment Program.
Butler explained that Earth Day Cleanup events are traditionally coordinated at the local level by various partners, including the cities of Vacaville, Dixon, and Benicia; Vallejo Flood & Wastewater District; Vallejo Watershed Alliance; Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District; Solano County Parks and the Downtown Vacaville Alliance. Additional support for this annual event comes from Solano Volunteers with the Center for Volunteer and Non-Profit Leadership and the Sierra Club Solano Group.