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Butte Environmental Council is pleased to announce the 35th annual Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup that will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2022 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm followed by a volunteer celebration in Hooker Oak Park until 4pm. In conjunction with World Cleanup Day, the California Coastal Cleanup, and the Great Sierra River Cleanup, the annual Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup is an event dedicated to improving the local environment and our community by working together to keep these green spaces and waterways waste-free before the winter rains wash debris downstream.
What Community Volunteers can Expect
Registration and check in begins at 8:30 am on 9/17/22 at Hooker Oak Park. Participants will receive their materials, cleanup location assignment, receive a safety briefing, and sign liability and photo release forms. From there, they will head out to their cleanup site, one of nearly one hundred cleanup zones designated by Butte Environmental Council. At the site, participants will scour the landscape for all types of trash, from the smallest to largest, most common to most unique. Large bulky items will be retrieved by participants calling the BEC dispatch center for a pick up, where special core volunteers or even the City Public Works department are directed to assist with removal. Participants can collect their items in buckets and bags which can be hauled to the nearest of two drop-off locations: Waste Management is hosting the downtown location in the parking lot behind city hall on 5th and Flume St. and Recology is hosting the Hooker Oak Location. Alternatively, if participants don’t have the ability to haul on their own, they will be able to contact the dispatch center to have a team come pick up the waste for them.
BEC is encouraging participants to take photos and track their efforts, and even has planned various challenges to win prizes. Microtrash is a huge problem everywhere and, even though the big debris is more fun to remove, microtrash is just as important to clean out. BEC will be awarding the person or group that collects the most microtrash with a prize. Additionally, other prizes will be available for the most amount of CRV bottles and cans collected, most number of clothing items found, the most number of steps taken, and Best of Show- most unique or strange thing found (voted on by other volunteers). Details on how to enter the challenges will be provided in the volunteer information packet. Stay tuned to BEC's social media to learn more.
Celebrating Our Community Volunteers
After 2pm, when all the waste has been hauled back to the collection locations and total estimates have been tallied, BEC is hosting an appreciation event at Hooker Oak Park and inviting all volunteers to attend. There will be music, food, informational booths, photo opportunities, announcements, and space to picnic to celebrate the hard work accomplished when the community works together. During the celebration event, challenge winners will be announced as well as the preliminary totals of waste removed from parks and creeks due to the efforts from the day. Food for meals will be available from Gnarli Deli, Lundberg Family Farms, and locally sourced fruit. This is a celebration for volunteers of all ages, please join in the day’s efforts and enjoy the rewards of all the hard work done.
History of the Cleanup
Since 1987, Butte Environmental Council has held community cleanups with more than 11,000 volunteers, over 40,000 volunteer and staff hours, who have removed over 508,000 pounds from sensitive natural spaces in Chico. That is more than 254 tons! BEC takes pride in its efforts in action and education to divert waste from filling up the Neal Road Landfill and goes to great lengths during the annual cleanup event to divert as much as possible to be recycled. Over the past 35 years, BEC’s cleanup efforts have diverted over 111,000 pounds of recyclable material from going to the landfill. To learn more about what it means to divert waste from the landfills and how to do your part, check out BEC’s Recycling and Rubbish Education (RARE) program.
Thanks to All the Cleanup Sponsors and Donors
Butte Environmental Council is a small grassroots nonprofit serving the Butte County Region. Its work is not possible without generous donations from individuals such as those from their “Friends of the Cleanup” nor would this event be possible without dozens of community business partners.
Send questions about this annual legacy BEC event to steward@becnet.org for more information.
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