Great British Beach Clean 2025: The results
This year’s Great British Beach Clean was a brilliant success and we’re delighted to reveal just how much of an impact our amazing volunteers had on our coastline.
Thank you to everyone who headed to beaches across the UK and Channel Islands from the 19-28th of September this year as part of our Great British Beach Clean.
It was wonderful to see even more volunteers getting involved in this year’s event, with 6,482 people coming out to clean up our beaches. Over the 10 days, 472 beach cleans took place, during which volunteers spent an incredible 11,469 hours removing and recording litter they found.
Credit: Matthew Johnstone
97
miles of beach cleaned
232,229
litter items removed
It was great to see cleans taking place in new areas and more being organised in Jersey and Guernsey this year, helping us to gather a more rounded picture of marine pollution across the UK and Channel Islands.
Source to Sea
Source to Sea inland cleans play an important role in helping us understand where litter comes from, as 80% of litter found on beaches makes its way there from inland sources.
This year, 450 volunteers took part in Source to Sea cleans during the Great British Beach Clean – an incredible 333% increase compared to last year! Through 83 inland cleans, they removed 15,728 litter items, weighing in at 400kg. Thanks to their efforts, this litter has been stopped from entering our waterways and ending up in our seas.
Credit: Matthew Johnstone
Clare Trotman, Beachwatch Officer at the Marine Conservation Society said, “We’re hugely thankful to the wonderful volunteers that joined this year’s Great British Beach Clean! Their efforts make a huge difference; removing litter from our beaches and inland to stop it harming marine life like seals, seabirds and seahorses, while recording what they find also allows us to inform policymakers and call for change to prevent litter reaching our beaches in the first place."
Credit: Dean Chapple / deanchapple.com
What happens now?
The litter data collected during the Great British Beach Clean will feed into our annual State of our Beaches report, which will be released in March 2026. This will provide an in-depth breakdown of the types, amounts and sources of litter polluting our marine environment. We will use the findings to push for change by feeding into consultation responses, parliamentary briefings and campaigns.
In the meantime, you can dive into the 2024 report for a closer look at the litter found on the UK and Channel Islands’ shores last year.
