Bayview Beautification: Picking up Trash? More Satisfying Than You’d think

 

Approximately 20 PMI-SFBAC members joined the Refuse Refuse Bayview Beautification cleanup event on Sunday July 20, 2025 at the Silver Terrace Playground in The City’s Bayview neighborhood.

“It was a beautiful day for beautification! Big thanks to Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association for organizing. I love the Sustainability team's commitment to community.”

Emily Zubritsky, PMISFBAC Green Team Leader

The Sunday 11AM start time in that sunny locale was made more enjoyable by the greetings of event hosts Emily Zubritsky and Elizabeth Nash, as well as those of fellow chapter volunteers.

 

As we each donned a neon orange vest, disposable plastic gloves, an orange trash bag, and grabbed a long pole with tongs at the end -- an item which I came to know as a trash picker, Emily and Elizabeth guided us to form small groups of 3-5 and to disperse to different blocks nearby to commence beautifying the Bayview.

  

With that, we began supporting the nonprofit Refuse Refuse and supporting our chapter’s Green Team, aka PMI SFBAC’s Sustainability Program.

Walking the blocks for just over 2 hours, I came to randomly join a group not affiliated with our morning’s PMISFBAC event: a cluster of local Moms who frequently perform beneficial works in San Francisco neighborhoods called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a national group whose local chapter also supports Refuse Refuse in San Francisco trash pickups. I began to learn how many different organizations show up for Refuse Refuse trash pickups.

Like all neighborhood cleanups, this event benefitted from proactive help, and our thanks go to Johanna Folk from Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association for bringing maps and facilitating the clean up. After a little over an hour of collecting trash on Bayview neighborhood streets, we were welcomed back to Silver Terrace Playground with a delicious lunch sponsored by the San Francisco Fire Department’s Bayview station and provided by Frank Grizzly’s.

 

✍️ Authors

Emily Zubritsky	Jean Lombard

 

Join Our Green Team

"There is always room on our team for volunteers to help ideate, plan, and execute our events"

Ina Acuña, PMISFBAC VP of Sustainability

Get in touch with us at: sustainability@pmisfbac.org

 

🌱 Events

Keep on the lookout for more events to come as these events are a great way to get involved with the community, learn about sustainability, or get hands-on experience working with organizations that are making the Bay Area more sustainable.