A La Jolla group is considering establishing a program to encourage community members and visitors to participate in trash collection.

After learning about the Del Mar Village Association’s newly-launched “ShoreSaver” program, a similar project might be effective in La Jolla, some said at the La Jolla Parks & Beaches meeting April 22.

The Del Mar ShoreSaver Program recently began providing baskets at that city’s 17th Street lifeguard station, hoping beachgoers will pick up litter, empty the baskets into trash bins and return the baskets to the station. 

The DVMA hopes to expand the program after collecting feedback.

Image courtesy of the Del Mar Village Association.

Del Mar’s environmental initiative is “exactly what I would love to see going forward here,” said LJP&B President Bob Evans. 

The program could then be a template for expansion throughout the city of San Diego’s shoreline areas, Evans added.

He asked for a working group to be formed to connect with DVMA about their planning processes and explore the feasibility of beginning such a program in La Jolla.

“It sounds easy, sounds simple,” Evans said. 

Other LJP&B board members expressed interest in the program, though Diane Kane said “if we’re increasing trash pickup, we need to make sure the trash is emptied,” citing overflowing trash cans left for days at La Jolla beaches and parks. 

Those would be issues considered by the working group, Evans responded. 

The ShoreSaver program seems “a structured way of doing things that we randomly [and] individually do often,” he said.

The item will be discussed further at the group’s next meeting, 4 p.m. Monday, May 20, at the La Jolla/Riford Library on Draper Avenue.