Jeff Silva, Sue Ann Erickson, David Gonsalves and Mayra Moreno

Pacific Beach Town Council

Grant Awarded: $12,900

Pacific Beach Town Council is a non-profit that oversees a small beach community of 45,000 residents. With approximately 6.5 million annual persons a year visiting this small beach community nestled against San Diego’s shoreline, the excess of litter, cigarette butts, graffiti, vandalism and violence has become an on-going problem. Pacific Beach Town Council takes action on efforts to beautify the community by confronting these issues.

CLEAN PB is a project initiated by the Design Driven class at the Art Institute of California, San Diego. Design Driven is a class that attempts to solve social and humanitarian problems through the methodology of design. Students experienced a “hands-on” approach concluding in results that were part of a larger designed system.

The goal of CLEAN PB is to educate the community about litter prevention and the importance of a collaborative effort in keeping the experience of a community a positive one. CLEAN PB is working to bring people together, to work together, and share their community together, one step at a time.

CLEAN PB, which is an acronym for Community Litter Education Awareness Network is both a statement and a campaign in a youth and tourist populated area. Through the CLEAN PB campaign we will be using a humorous approach to encourage both residents and guests to clean up after themselves − using trash talking trash cans. We believe the humor component is key in the community because a full 50% of the population, and a large portion of visitors are within 25-35 age bracket. By making it fun, we believe the community will respond with enthusiasm and curiosity rather than ignore.

After implementation of the CLEAN PB campaign, we plan to develop a “Welcome Kit” to launch the campaign and establish a monthly CLEAN PB Day, encouraging the community to volunteer in cleaning the neighborhoods. The campaign will be sustained through the CLEANPB.com website.