From plastic bags blowing along freeways, to plastic cups littering city streets, in the last 50 years, plastic products have overwhelmed the planet, so it’s little surprise that ending plastic pollution is the theme of World Environment Day 2025, Saturday.

But volunteers in Solano County can make a difference locally by pitching in to remove trash from Lake Berryessa, plant native vegetation, restore soil health, make take-home seed packets, then celebrate with a free picnic lunch.

Registration for the three-hour event, coordinated by the Solano Resource Conservation District, is required and can be completed at cleanupsolano.org.

“Given that World Environment Day in 2025 is specifically focused on ending plastic pollution, we anticipate that plastic will constitute a significant portion of the trash we collect at Lake Berryessa,” Robyn Slater, county cleanup coordinator, wrote in a press statement.

Of the more than 1 million plastic bottles purchased every minute across the world only small percentage make it to recycling facilities to be made into something else, she noted.

A much greater number join other plastic trash to flow through storm drains into creeks and eventually into the oceans. Scientists estimate that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans by weight than there are fish, added Slater.

On Saturday the Dixon-based RCD will partner with Solano County Water Agency, Anheuser-Busch in Fairfield, Solano Volunteers/CVNL, Solano County Parks, Putah Creek Council, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and MCE Energy.

To learn more about other Solano County cleanup activities, including Solano County Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 20, visit cleanupsolano.org.