Volunteers in Mayo remove an estimated two tonnes of litter during Big Beach Clean 2025
An estimated 60 tonnes of marine litter was removed from Ireland’s coastline this past weekend as thousands of dedicated volunteers across the country rallied for the annual Big Beach Clean, an initiative of An Taisce’s Clean Coasts programme.
Taking place from September 19 to 21, over 520 clean-ups engaging almost 11,000 volunteers took place nationwide, ultimately removing over 60 tonnes of litter from Ireland's coastal and inland waterways.
While a few groups had to postpone clean-ups due to poor weather conditions, the majority still took place, demonstrating the strong commitment of communities across the country.
The Big Beach Clean 2025, supported once again by Kia Ireland, illustrated the incredible efforts and commitment of volunteers across Ireland in caring for our marine environment.
In Co. Mayo, volunteers from nearly 30 groups removed an estimated two tonnes of marine litter, with clean-ups taking place in various locations. While some events were cut short or postponed due to heavy rain, many dedicated volunteers weren’t deterred and took part in their clean-ups as planned, or waited for conditions to improve and rescheduled their clean-up over the weekend.
Among them, 12 volunteers of all ages from Protect Keel Machair Project took to Keel Beach for a clean-up and enjoyed a warm cuppa and a chat in Keel Hall afterwards.
The Irish Coastguard Unit - Westport gathered at Westport Quay and collected 12 bags of litter and some bulky items, including plastic, netting, rope, glass bottles, tyres and some drums of oil/diesel.
Achill Tourim performed a short clean-up on Dugort and Doeega Vitamin Sea swimmers on Dooega in the less than favourable weather and collected three bags of litter. In addition, Dooega Clean Coasts took to Dooega Beach, removing 108kg of marine litter.
Reports suggest that approximately 80% of marine litter comes from land-based activities and litter dropped in towns and cities ends up in our seas and oceans. This year, with support from An Taisce’s National Spring Clean programme, volunteers from inland counties were also strongly encouraged to join the call to action, no matter how far they are from the coast.
Getting involved in the Big Beach Clean has been a way for volunteers from non-coastal counties to help prevent litter entering our waterways, with over half of non-coastal counties having a higher registration rate in 2025 than in 2024.
Clean Coasts’ Big Beach Clean is an annual call to action that runs as part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), operated internationally by Ocean Conservancy. Each year, Big Beach Clean volunteers are invited to take part in this worldwide citizen science project. By recoding quantities and categories of litter found and filling in Clean Coasts’ Marine Litter Data Cards to share with Ocean Conservancy, this initiative not only helps to keep litter out of our waterways but also helps to inform policies and actions surrounding litter through citizen science data collection.
Clean Coasts campaigns such as #BinTheButt and #BreakUpWithPlastic were borne out of previous years’ Big Beach Clean data. In 2024, the top three items recorded during the Big Beach Clean weekend were fishing-related waste, cigarette butts and plastic pieces.
The 2025 Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) marine litter report indicated a 50% increase in the number of beaches and inland waterways achieving a ‘clean’ rating. The report credits this significant improvement to the dedicated work of Clean Coasts groups and local volunteers. The 2025 survey also identified cigarette butts, sweet wrappers, and fast-food packaging as the most frequently encountered litter items across surveyed areas.