Editor:

I can’t believe Summer is right around the corner! Time flies when you’re keeping SF clean and year-to-date we’ve collectively organized 650 cleanups and removed 11,000+ bags of trash (or 143,000 gallons); our grand total by the end of the month will be 2,700+ cleanups organized and 50,000+ bags of trash collected. Wow.

The Summer Solstice, and longest day of the year, is on Thursday, June 20 and that of course means our annual sunup to sundown cleanup. The past three years, we cleaned the entire length of Mission Street from the border of Daly City to the Embarcadero. This year, we’re switching it up with our Breakers to Bay All Day Cleanup where we’ll start at Ocean Beach and end at the Ferry Building, cleaning the neighborhoods along Balboa St, Turk St, and Market St. I’ll be pulling a wagon full of cleaning gear and the schedule of where we’ll be is on the registration page. Please sign up for any shifts you’re available to join us.

We also wanted to put the call out for volunteers to help us lead cleanups during the weekdays. Our corporate volunteer program continues to ramp up, and come Fall, we’ll be pushing to organize even more cleanups with local schools. Being a Cleanup Captain for corporate and school cleanups is easy and we’ll make sure you’re prepped to lead them. Please reply to this email if you’re available to help.

Lastly, later this summer I’ll be taking a bucket-list trip to Japan with my family. We’ll be sightseeing, sampling the food, and soaking up the culture as best we can, but I of course will have a keen eye on seeing firsthand how the Japanese keep their homeland so clean. Looking forward to reporting back and to strategize ways that we can turn our city into San Fransokyo.

Your neighbor,

Vince Yuen, founder, Refuse Refuse