The Surfrider Foundation’s Plastic Pollution Initiative aims to protect our ocean from the harms caused by plastic pollution by advocating for the reduction of single-use plastics, creating a cleaner future for our beaches. This includes eliminating the production of single-use plastics at the source, switching to more sustainable or reusable options, and ensuring that all remaining plastic is mechanically recycled rather than being burned or ending up in landfills or our environment. The Beach Cleanup program is the first step in reducing the amount of plastic ending up in our waterways, on our beaches, and ultimately in the ocean and demonstrates that through collective action, positive change for a cleaner future is possible.

Over the course of 2025, 34,000 volunteers removed nearly 340,000 pounds of trashand recycling from America’s coastal environments during 1,058 cleanups, ultimately intercepting and reducing the amount of plastic pollution flowing into our ocean. More than 800,000 individual items were cleaned up from beaches, parks, and coastal ecosystems. Surfrider’s beach cleanup data confirms that once again, year after year, plastic pollution is an enormous, pervasive threat to our coasts and ocean.

In 2025, plastic was the number one material found during Surfrider beach cleanups, accounting for 85% of all items cataloged. The results of these cleanups are not only immediately cleaner communities and beaches, but also long-term reductions in plastic pollution by identifying problematic pollution trends and working to pass legislation to remove these items from circulation.

Regional Impact

Cleanups do more than clean the beach — they bring new people into Surfrider’s community, provide a hands-on learning experience about the scale and scope of plastic pollution, empower local leadership, and lay the foundation for a cleaner future for our ocean and coasts. The 2025 Beach Cleanup Report spotlights the incredible activists working tirelessly to clean up their beaches and shares their stories of why cleanups are important to them and their communities. As Surfrider chapters and student clubs continue to host cleanups and remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from our beaches and coasts each year, we couldn’t be more thankful for their dedication to keeping our ocean clean and free from plastic pollution.

Read the full article about the Surfrider Foundation’s 2025 Beach Cleanup report by Jennifer Harrah at Surfrider Foundation.