STOCKTON, Calif. — More than 127 tons of trash and recyclables — in some cases destined for lakes, rivers or the ocean — are now away from California's coastlines and parks.
Saturday morning, the state's Coastal Commission held what it calls California's largest annual volunteer event: Coastal Cleanup Day.
According to the commission's preliminary results, more than 28,751 volunteers picked up the debris before it could be washed out during the rainy season.
Just over 460 of those volunteers devoted their time to at least six parks, lakes and rivers in San Joaquin County.
"It's just a lot of trash. I mean, it's a lot of bottle caps, it's a lot of plastic bottles... candy wrappers, food wrappers, things like that," said volunteer Steven Wiesner who lives near Stockton's American Legion Park. "We came out here for a couple of hours. We pick up some trash. Everything was set up for us. It's an hour or two out of our life to do something to help the community. It's an easy thing to do."
In Stockton, volunteers picked up seemingly everything from window frames and shopping carts to food wrappers and containers. The county says that region-wide 13.8 miles were covered and 5.87 tons of trash and recyclables were disposed of.
The Coastal Commission held a contest to determine the most unusual items found during Saturday's events. The awards went to Los Angeles County where a volunteer reportedly found a cashier's check worth $68,000 and Contra Costa County where a volunteer reported finding life-like matching cowboy and cowgirl figurines.
While dealing with garbage for hours to some could seem trashy, the annual clean-up events also offered a chance to connect with nature.
"It's nice to connect to nature, I feel like, and then know that you're having a positive impact on our environment and helping out," said Jordan Ellis, volunteering Saturday to earn community service hours for a class at Lincoln High School. "It's a big problem in today's world so just doing something is always helping."
That is part of the message officials were hoping to send — that anyone can make small changes to help make a big difference.
"At the end of the day, we came out here and did our morning walk. The only difference this week is we picked up some trash," said Wiesner. "Go out for a morning walk, you maybe bring a bucket and pick a couple of things up. No big deal."
Watch more from ABC10: Teen hosts community events to clean up Stockton
