This material was found as litter most often on San Diego’s beaches
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Litter has long been the scourge of San Diego’s beaches, but what are the items most often found discarded? In their 2023 Marine Debris Report, San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation broke down the kinds of littered materials picked up most often in their beach cleanup efforts last year, and items made of plastic — to no surprise — accounted for most of the trash they recovered. According to the report, eight out of every 10 pieces of trash collected across more than 260 separate beach and inland cleanups in 2023 were some kind of plastic. This includes plastic fragments, food wrappers, food service items, bottles and caps, and bags. Del Mar breaks out new green baskets for a first-of-its-kind initiative At 21.1 percent, fragments accounted for the largest share of all items collected in these cleanups. According to the nonprofits, 63,433 pieces of plastic fragments were gathered in 2023 — the vast majority being mesoplastics, or bits smaller than 20 millimeters in size. “This highlights the need for additional policy work targeting unnecessary single-use plastics that commonly end up