Plastic Trash Continues to Impact San Diego Beaches

 

DATE: 05/19/2026

 

SAN DIEGO –– 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 highlights the need for additional policy work targeting unnecessary single-use plastics that commonly end up on our beaches and in the ocean, something San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation San Diego County are diligently working towards. A comprehensive breakdown of our cleanups, including detailed information and statistics, is 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/.

 

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Founded in 1995, San Diego Coastkeeper safeguards our region’s inland and coastal waters through a strategic blend of community science, education, grassroots outreach, policy advocacy, and legal enforcement of environmental laws. This approach allows us to effectively tackle the most pressing water issues facing our region. For more information, visit sdcoastkeeper.org.

 

 

The Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s ocean, waves, and beaches, for all people, through a powerful activist network. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, California, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over one million supporters, activists, and members, with more than 250 volunteer-led chapters and student clubs in the U.S., and more than 1,000 victories protecting our coasts. Learn more at surfriderSD.org (surfrider.org)