For this year’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), Surfrider volunteers joined communities across the country to clean their local beaches and raise awareness about plastic pollution. On the weekend of September 19th, more than 1,200 coastal activists attended 30 events across the country and removed over 4,000 pounds of trash.
The Better Beach Alliance (BBA) is a major reason why we are able to do this work. The Alliance was launched in 2018 in partnership with REEF, with the goal of expanding the impact of volunteer beach cleanups and fighting plastic pollution. Costa Sunglasses joined the Alliance as a supporting partner in 2025. Through education, community action, and policy advocacy, the BBA brings people together to address the sources of plastic pollution and advance solutions that keep waste off our beaches and out of the ocean. International Coastal Cleanup is an important part of this work, bringing communities together to take action while collecting valuable data that can help drive long-term change. This year, Costa also supported our ICC efforts by hosting beach cleanups with our Miami, Charleston, and Treasure Coast Chapters, where 335 pounds of trash was removed.
Beach cleanups are a powerful tool in the fight against plastic pollution and, as one of the world's largest annual volunteer-led preservation and protection events, ICC showcases how powerful collective action can be in support of our ocean, waves and beaches. Since its inception 40 years ago, 19 million volunteers have helped remove 400 million pounds of trash during cleanups events on this day of service for our coasts. But ICC has always been about more than simply removing trash from the beach. From the very first cleanup in Texas back in 1986, volunteers have documented the items they collected with a standardized data card, creating a record of beach debris that helps us understand the scope and sources of pollution and identify solutions.
Today, Surfrider volunteers continue that tradition in many of our cleanups, not just for ICC. Collecting data during cleanups year-round helps to provide a clear picture of the state of our beaches - which unfortunately is less than idyllic. Surfrider data shows that 85% of all items collected are plastic. Top items include single-use plastic foodware, plastic bottles and cigarette butts.
Cleanup data helps to extend the impact of these events far beyond just a single day at the beach. By tracking what we find, volunteers help build a powerful picture of the plastic pollution crisis and provide the evidence we need to advocate for solutions. Surfrider tracks this information in our beach cleanup database, using data collected by volunteers across the country to identify the products and pollutants that are ending up on our beaches most often, and to push for policies that keep them out of our ocean in the first place. Our beach cleanup database is made possible and maintained through the generous support of our Better Beach Alliance partners, REEF and Costa.
This data has helped fuel campaigns for policies that address some of the most common items found during cleanups, including plastic bag bans, Skip the Stuff policies that reduce unnecessary single-use foodware, and filtered cigarette bans. These policies tackle plastic pollution at the source, helping prevent plastic from littering beaches in the first place. Every piece of trash collected tells a story about how it got there, and every policy win is an opportunity to change that story.
One cleanup, one policy at a time, we continue the fight for a plastic-free future. Join the fight by attending a cleanup near you, signing an action alert, or becoming a Surfrider member today.
Thanks again to our Better Beach Alliance partners, REEF and Costa, for their continued support.
As Healthy Beaches Programs Manager, Jennifer oversees the national Beach Cleanup Program and other healthy beaches initiatives. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies.