The mission of the California Trash Monitoring Workgroup (Trash Workgroup) is to support current practices and advances in trash monitoring and the development of data analysis and visualization tools aimed at assessing the effectiveness of policies and practices for limiting the amounts of trash in the environment. This mission will be fulfilled by providing a forum for discussion, coordination and technical exchanges by a variety of organizations, including government agencies, academic institutions and non-governmental agencies. The Trash Workgroup will review current policies and practices for reducing trash and the use of monitoring data to improve the knowledge needed to accomplish the goals of this group and to inform policy makers and those affected.