Beachwatch 2024: What you found

More than 15,000 volunteers completed over 1,200 litter surveys in 2024.

Across the UK and Channel Islands, volunteers removed over 764,000 litter items from our beaches, weighing more than 16,800kg.

Find out about what this vital litter data tells us and the actions we’re taking around the UK and Channel Islands to reduce the amount of harmful plastic and other litter items ending up on our beaches.

Thanks to over 4,100 volunteers, we saw a 28% increase in the number of surveys submitted in 2024. This helps us build a better picture of the types and amount of litter polluting Scotland’s beaches so we can effectively campaign for change to reduce it.

In 2024, we saw a 7% increase in litter compared to 2023, with a staggering 527,468 litter items picked up on Scottish beaches, equating to an average of 204 items per 100m.

Wet wipes

22,332 wet wipes were picked up in Scotland in 2024 and were found on 43% of beaches surveyed. Wet wipes are still a major problem in certain areas of Scotland, so we need the Scottish Government to implement the promised ban on plastic in single-use wet wipes as soon as possible. We’re also calling on the Scottish Government to phase out other single-use plastic sanitary items and support reusable options.

In 2024 we also saw Scottish Water take action in response to the data collected by our volunteers and their asks. It increased the monitoring of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) from 7% to 32% and published a near real-time data map to increase transparency. Although this is great progress, we need to see that monitoring increased to 100% with targets to reduce the number of times CSOs discharge into the environment.

Fishing gear and aquaculture equipment

With the support of the Scottish Islands Federation, we saw a 16% increase in the number of surveys submitted from across the Scottish Islands in 2024, helping us better understand the types of litter impacting islands’ beaches. Fishing and aquaculture related litter made up 32% of all litter recorded on Scottish Islands, compared to only 12% of litter on mainland Scotland.

We hope this data will help to continue to raise awareness of the true impact that marine litter is having on island communities and the need for funding to support further clean-up activity across impacted coastal communities.

We have published a parliamentary briefing to take your data straight to Members of the Scottish Parliament to call on parliament and government to work with key stakeholders to produce a clear plan of action to tackle this issue. We are also calling on all governments of the UK to ensure all UK ports and harbours can provide free, standardised waste reception facilities for fishing gear with equivalent measures for aquaculture sites and gear.

Circular Economy

Thanks to advocacy, which Beachwatch data supported, the Scottish Parliament passed the Circular Economy Act last year, taking a vital step away from a single-use and throwaway society.

2024 also marked 10 years since the carrier bag charge was introduced in Scotland. Our Beachwatch data shows that since the charge was implemented, bags on beaches decreased by 87%, highlighting that these types of policies work to reduce single-use plastic consumption.

Although the amount of drinks-related litter recorded on Scotland’s beaches decreased by 5.6% compared to 2023, with 17 items found per 100m, this type of litter was still found on 95% of beaches surveyed. This highlights the urgent need for the incoming Deposit Return Scheme, which is due to launch in October 2027 in line with the Schemes in England and Northern Ireland.

Thank you to the 9,656 volunteers who got involved in beach cleans in 2024. We received 651 litter surveys from across England, providing us with vital data on the most prevalent litter types polluting its beaches.

England was the only nation in the UK and Channel Islands that saw a decrease in litter compared to 2023. An average of 158 litter items were found per 100m of beach surveyed – a 2% drop from 2023. Although it’s great to see litter levels going down, we want to see further action taken to reduce this further.

Fishing-related litter

England saw a 20% increase in fishing gear compared to 2023, with an average of 12 items per 100m of beach surveyed. This type of litter was found on 92% of beaches surveyed.

As there was an increase in fishing gear all across the UK in 2024, we’re calling on the UK Government to ensure all UK ports and harbours provide free, standardised waste reception facilities with equivalent measures for aquaculture sites and gear.

Sewage-related debris

Sewage-related litter (SRD) remained at the same level as 2023, with sewage-related items found on 78% of England’s beaches in 2024. Wet wipes were found on 63% of beaches surveyed in 2024, with volunteers picking up and removing 3,773 of them.

As we haven’t yet seen a reduction of SRD on English beaches, it's clear that more action is needed from the UK Government to tackle this type of litter, such as implementing the promised ban on plastic in single-use wet wipes as soon as possible.

We’re also calling on the UK government to bring forward the target deadlines in the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan to reduce pollution in high-priority areas and for the requirement of screening controls in all overflows to limit discharge of sewage-related debris by 2030.

Drinks related-litter

The amount of drinks litter found on England's beaches also remained unchanged from 2023, with items recorded on 95% of beaches surveyed in 2024 and an average of 15 found per 100m.

This again shows why we want to see Deposit Return Schemes, at a minimum, to start by the promised date of October 2027 for plastic and metal drinks containers. We also want to see a circular solution for glass in place either via a Deposit Return Scheme or other Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme, and to be designed with the ambition to move to reuse and refill schemes in the future.

Thank you to everyone who headed to beaches across the Channel Islands to clean up and record the litter they found. We received 16 surveys, with 164 volunteers taking part in 2024. 2,038 litter items were recorded with 90% of litter found being made of plastic or polystyrene.

As with Northern Ireland, we’re currently unable to draw statistical conclusions from the data and are keen to get more volunteers from the Channel Islands involved in our beach cleans and litter surveys.

If you’d like to take part and contribute to our ever-growing dataset, please email beachwatch@mcsuk.org.