Ahead of World Oceans Day and as peak beach tourism season gets underway, San Diego Coastkeeper, Surfrider Foundation San Diego County, and Ocean Connectors released their 2025 Marine Debris Report. In 2025, Coastkeeper, Surfrider, and Ocean Connectors rallied an inspiring 8,179 volunteers who removed 19,880.4 pounds of trash from our coastal beaches, shorelines, and inland waterways. Coastkeeper and Surfrider invite the public to join our efforts to keep our beaches clean, by participating in community cleanup efforts in 2026.
Since 2007, our collaborative beach cleanup program has removed over 189,241 pounds of debris from our local beaches and waterways. In 2025, we collected 516,665 individual pieces of trash across 214 different cleanup events. Among the most common culprits were plastic fragments, cigarette butts, and EPS foam (a.k.a. Styrofoam) fragments. Cigarette butts had long been the top item found along San Diego’s coastlines and inland waterways. However, for the past few years, plastic fragments have been the most common debris recovered during cleanups, representing 25% of all pieces of trash collected in 2025.
This year’s findings underscore the urgent need for stronger policies to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics, which continue to be among the most common items collected during beach and waterway cleanups. Once in the environment, plastic breaks down into tiny fragments known as microplastics that can persist for decades, absorb harmful chemicals, and be ingested by fish, seabirds, and other marine life, ultimately entering the food web. San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation San Diego County are working to advance local and state policies that reduce plastic pollution at its source. A comprehensive breakdown of cleanup data, trends, and statistics is available in the 2025 Marine Debris Report.
As summer brings more visitors to San Diego’s beaches, bays, and waterways, the need for cleanup volunteers is greater than ever. Coastkeeper, Surfrider, and Ocean Connectors host cleanups throughout the year, with regular community events weekly, from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Volunteers are always needed, and people of all abilities are welcome to join. For additional cleanup dates and more information, visit sdcoastkeeper.org/events, sandiego.surfrider.org/events, or https://oceanconnectors.org/kayak-cleanup/.
