In an old garage in Isla Vista, UC Santa Barbara student Alicia Banegas is getting her shift started as the morning fog begins to burn away. She grabs buckets, rags, paper towels, spray paint and anything else she might need.

As a team member on the Isla Vista Beautiful project, Banegas, a third-year biology major, spends 10 to 16 hours a week picking up trash, painting over graffiti, taking down old fliers, and helping raise awareness about how to make Isla Vista a cleaner and more sustainable place. 

The Isla Vista Beautiful project started in 2018, originally run through a contract with United Way in Santa Barbara County, but was fully taken over by the Isla Vista Community Services District in 2022. The program has seven team members, including Banegas, who has been on the team since August 2022. 

“I really liked the idea of working within the community. It was a gateway to learn more about the place that I live,” Banegas said. “Why not do that?”

In 2022, the IVCSD hired Jenna Norton as program manager for the project. Norton told Noozhawk that for the past year they’ve been working to find solutions to problems such as litter and student move-out week, gathering supplies and building up the team. 

“I lived here for five years, and I just love it,” Norton said. “It’s beautiful as it is. I love the people, the culture. It just means a lot to me, and the fact that I get to come back here every day and give back and improve the situation here is just a dream.” 

The beautification team will log instances of graffiti and piles of glass or trash that they see around Isla Vista, but residents can also report graffiti, litter, broken glass and more on the SeeClickFix app. 

Banegas said doing this job has taught her a lot about sustainability and the problems contributing to the amount of litter in Isla Vista.

“We are a really overpopulated little area, so we make a lot more trash than we can sustain,” Banegas said. “We have so much trash and so much furniture and big things that we don’t have enough space for here. But there are a lot of people, so there are a lot of people that need stuff.”

The biggest thing Banegas wants other Isla Vista residents to know is that they should be closing their trash can lids. 

“A lot of times people will take out their trash and not put the lid on top, which is just so crucial,” Banegas said, “because that’s how the majority of trash ends up on the street.”

Norton told Noozhawk that one of her huge goals is to solve the trash problem in Isla Vista.

“The overflowing trash cans are really the cause of the litter that you see, and it’s bad for the environment, the animals; it’s not a happy environment for people to live in, and it makes people think that other people are littering when that’s actually not the case,” Norton said. “Things are getting put into the trash, but there just isn’t room in the trash so things come out.”

It’s not all cleaning and painting over graffiti. Norton said research and documentation is a big part of the project to understand why these problems occur.

“We learned that a lot of the time either properties may not have enough trash cans or animals are getting into their trash and that makes litter go all over the street,” Norton said. “It just kind of snowballs from there.” 

The beautification team is also aiming to make the annual move-out time, which happens in June as classes at UCSB are finishing, a more smooth and sustainable experience. Many students have a gap from when their lease ends to when the new one begins, leaving them with limited options to store furniture and other items. If they can’t store items or fit them in their cars, it often gets left on the curb. 

“It’s a hazard, the stuff that gets left out,” Norton said. “People will throw actual trash in the trash can and it always ends up literally everywhere.”

With the aim to prevent the amount of trash and furniture that gets left out, they hosted two move out sales last year and have another one planned for May. Any unsold furniture items from last year were saved and sold back into the community at a move-in sale at the end of the summer.

“It gives people a chance to get rid of stuff way beforehand,” Norton said. “Simultaneously, we’re also educating people about what to do with their unwanted items, giving tips on how people can prepare early so that stuff doesn’t end up getting left on the curb, and providing lists of storage facilities and places they can donate their stuff.”

This year, Norton said they plan to communicate closely with MarBorg Industries, the local trash company. Norton hopes to have workers tidying up ahead of MarBorg trucks, picking up trash just before Marborg comes to collect to ensure bags or trash aren’t being left on sidewalks and potentially spilling open.

Norton said she hopes that as residents get more involved with reporting litter or other problems, and seeing others trying to make their community better, it will create a more caring and sustainable culture in Isla Vista. 

“I think by doing that it changes the culture of Isla Vista and makes people have more respect for their community and maybe more of a sense of belonging, especially if they get involved with reporting to the SeeClickFix app,” Norton said. “Then they see that there are actually people out there who care and are out there every day, cleaning up these messes.”