The Back Bay’s trash day

Sweethearts Katie Ponce and Robert Ojeda found a helpful way to celebrate their two-year, five-month anniversary Saturday.

Ponce, an environmental biology student at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, brought Ojeda to the California Coastal Cleanup day at the Upper Newport Bay.

“It’s good for the environment,” Ponce said.

The couple joined others in the 22nd annual statewide beach cleanup day. People traveled from across the street or down the freeway to pick up trash in the Back Bay.

All were invited to help. Some were there for school credit, others because they want to make their backyard a little cleaner.

“There’s so much trash and stuff in there,” said 14-year-old Newport Beach resident Alex Weber, who lives near the Back Bay.

Volunteers checked in and were dispatched in vans to several work sites around the Back Bay. Armed with bags and gloves, the volunteers were instructed to pick up any piece of trash that looked like it didn’t belong. If they came across something too big to carry — like a mattress or shopping cart — they would alert a volunteer leader who would pick it up.

Naturalists said it’s not uncommon to find large items. Tires, bed frames and car parts have all been found in the Back Bay, naturalist Iris Timmons said.

The wetlands of the Back Bay act as a natural filter to stop any harmful waste from reaching the ocean, but sometimes the wetlands get backed up with trash, volunteer Leigh Johnson said. If someone discards a cigarette butt in the street in Santa Ana, it can wash down the storm drain and end up here, Johnson said.

The organized cleanup day is the only day of the year when people are allowed off the trails to pick up trash.

Early September is a small window of time when local endangered birds aren’t nesting in the Back Bay, Johnson said.