Discarded plastic bottles and caps are the most found litter on beaches and waterways worldwide, according to a new survey.

Figures published by Ocean Conservancy show volunteers collected 1,338,712 plastic bottles and 885,854 caps during the 2025 International Coastal Cleanup, making them the first and third most found item during the one-day event.

Cigarette butts were the second most found item, with 1,927,920 collected by cleanup volunteers.

For many years, cigarette butts were the top item collected by volunteers in the U.S, and the report notes there are now more than 1,200 city or municipal laws addressing this form of litter, such as designated smoking-free beaches.

Since the first International Coastal Cleanup in 1986, nearly 20 million volunteers have joined local efforts to remove over 405 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways around the globe.

The event is held annually on the third Saturday of September but has grown so large that thousands of cleanups happen throughout the month.

Its marine debris database has also been used to inform scientists, conservation groups, governments about ocean trash.

Its data has been cited in nearly 300 peer-reviewed articles, with 163 of those studies published in the last five years alone.

It was recently used in a peer-reviewed study that shows plastic bag bans lead to reduced plastic bag pollution.

“The International Coastal Cleanup will continue to be a touchpoint for scientists and policymakers to see how effective our interventions and solutions can be,” the report states.

And it also been instrumental in spurring policy change–from being used to promote California’s SB 54, the Florida balloon release ban, the Farewell to Foam Act and the U.N. Plastics Treaty.

“The International Coastal Cleanup results send a clear message: single-use plastics are polluting our ocean at an alarming rate,” said Nick Mallos, Ocean Conservancy’s vice president of conservation, ocean plastics, in a statement.

“We hope that by sharing these findings, it will inspire policymakers to take the bold action needed to end ocean plastic pollution once and for all.”

Ocean Conservancy’s director of plastics policy, Dr. Anja Brandon, said plastic bottles more among the most recyclable items out there, in a statement.

Dr. Brand added the report’s findings highlight two important truths.

She said the first was that too much plastic is being produced, and secondly how a lot of waste is not going where it needs to go.

“Increasing access to recycling, including bottle deposit returns, and investing in reuse and refill infrastructure would go a long way in protecting the ocean from this common type of plastic pollution,” said Dr. Brandon.

Oceana’s senior campaign director, Christy Leavitt said the cleanup results make clear how single-use plastics continue to flood beaches and waterways around the world, in a statement.

Leavitt added removing millions of single-use plastics is a significant achievement.

“As long as companies keep producing vast amounts of single-use plastic, volunteers will keep finding it on our beaches and in our waterways,” said Leavitt.

“That's why we need solutions that tackle this problem at the source by reducing the production of plastic worldwide.”