Who left a dinosaur on the beach? What Jersey Shore Beach Sweeps volunteers found.

Dan Radel, Asbury Park Press
·4 min read

LONG BRANCH - Did anyone leave an orange-colored plastic toy dinosaur from the 1960s on the beach last year? Or their pregnancy test? How about that disposable dog poop bag?

If so, Clean Ocean Action volunteers found them last year during the group's annual Beach Sweeps event. All told, 3,664 volunteers picked up 176,206 pieces of debris at 75 New Jersey beach locations at COA's two Beach Sweep events that were held in April and October. That debris was either left by beachgoers, was washed up by the ocean or traveled through storm water drains.

Clean Ocean Action, which has been holding beach sweeps since 1985, released its 2023 Beach Sweeps data on Thursday. Due to rainy weather on both event days, there were fewer volunteers than usual last year, and thus the amount of debris picked up also dropped. For example, in 2022, over 8,000 volunteers hit the beaches and picked up over 375,000 pieces of trash.

Still, volunteers picked up quite a bit of trash, with plastic waste in its many shapes and forms still remaining the most found item at the beach, by a wide margin. Slightly more than 79% of the trash picked up was in plastic form, whether that be a plastic bottle cap, straw or cigar filter. The last time plastic items were less than 80% was in 2015.

Volunteers take part in a Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweep event in Seaside Park on April 17, 2021.
Volunteers take part in a Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweep event in Seaside Park on April 17, 2021.

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New Jersey has been trying to reduce the amount of plastic consumers use with a pair of “Get Past Plastic” laws that went into effect in 2021 and 2022. The first law provides that plastic straws only be given to restaurant customers upon request. The second law banned single-use plastic carryout bags at stores and polystyrene foam food service products.

Clean Ocean Action did find a slight decline in the number of plastic bags picked up between 2022 and 2023. Last year, 0.63 bags per volunteer were removed, versus 0.72 bags per volunteer in 2022. The average was used over the total collected, since 60% fewer volunteers went out in 2023 due to the foul weather.

Plastic straws and foam containers went up slightly. In 2022, 2.6 plastic straws or stirrers were removed per volunteer. In 2023, 2.66 per volunteer were removed. In 2022, 0.36 pieces of foam plastic (containers, trays, & cups) per volunteer were removed. In 2023, 0.47 per volunteer were removed.

Plastic accounted for the eight of the group's "dirty dozen," or the most commonly found items on the beach sweeps. The number one item in 2023 were plastic bottle caps and lids. Metal cans, such as aluminum soda cans, made the dirty dozen for the first tine since 2008.

Cigarette butts or filters remain one of the most commonly found items, but perhaps due to the smoking prohibitions put in place at New Jersey's public beaches, are no longer the top items picked up. Cigarettes butts were fourth in 2023. The last time cigarettes held Clean Ocean Action's number one spot in the "dirty dozen" was 2012.

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The Dirty Dozen

  • Plastic bottle caps/lids

  • Food, candy wrappers/bags

  • Plastic pieces

  • Cigarette filters

  • Straws/stirrers

  • Foam pieces

  • Plastic beverage bottles

  • Cigar tips

  • Paper pieces

  • Metal beverage cans

  • Glass pieces

  • Other plastics

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Clean Ocean Action is gearing for its spring Beach Sweeps, which will be held on April 13 at 80 locations around the state, the most ever. The environmental group is hoping to climb over 1 million total volunteer hours in the 39th year of the event. As it stands, 169,675 volunteers have donated 982,664 hours since 1985, the first year of Beach Sweeps. Those volunteers have picked up 8,491,233 pieces of trash off New Jersey beaches.

Volunteers must register ahead of time for Beach Sweeps by going to at COA's website. Clean Ocean Action highly recommends volunteers, or "citizen scientists" as the group's founder executive director Cindy Zipf calls them, bring their own bucket to collect trash in order to reduce the use of plastic garbage bags.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore Beach Sweeps litter find plastic once again leads the way