Volunteers Clean 80 New Jersey Beaches in Annual Sweeps

Thousands of residents gathered across the coast on October 24 to remove marine debris and track environmental data.

Updated on Oct. 26, 2026 in Environmental

Wide shot of a sandy New Jersey beach with dunes, driftwood, and distant anonymous volunteers walking along the coastline. — More than 4,500 volunteers participated in Clean Ocean Action's annual Fall Beach Sweeps across 80 locations in New Jersey on October 24. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Live Poll

Do you believe local volunteer environmental projects lead to meaningful policy changes in your community?

More than 4,500 volunteers participated in the Clean Ocean Action Fall Beach Sweeps across 80 New Jersey locations. The initiative continues a decades-long effort to document marine debris and drive state environmental policy.

Why it matters

The program serves as a critical data-gathering tool for state lawmakers to craft coastal protection legislation. By recording every item removed, volunteers directly inform the development of policies aimed at improving water quality and protecting marine life.

Over four decades, the program has mobilized 180,000 volunteers to remove 8.9 million pieces of debris from New Jersey shores. The recent event saw significant turnout, including 309 volunteers concentrated at Raritan Bay Waterfront Park alone.

The players

Clean Ocean Action

This regional coalition is dedicated to improving the degraded water quality of the marine waters off the New Jersey and New York coast.

The details

Volunteers at dozens of locations, including Sandy Hook, Point Pleasant Beach, Bradley Beach, and Asbury Park, collected trash and meticulously logged every item found. This raw data is compiled to track pollution trends and has historically paved the way for legislative action.

1985 marks the start of the first biannual beach sweeps.
October 24, 2026, was the date of the annual Fall Beach Sweeps.
2022 saw the enactment of the Get Past Plastic law using program data.
2026 was the year New Jersey enacted the Skip the Stuff law.

The Big Picture

The program provided the empirical evidence needed to successfully enact the 2022 Get Past Plastic law, which fundamentally changed state waste disposal requirements. This cleanup effort extends that tradition by linking localized volunteer action to long-term legislative paradigm shifts in coastal conservation.

These cleanup events directly translate into cleaner public shorelines and reduced marine hazards for swimmers and wildlife. By participating, residents also contribute to the specific data sets that drive future state-level environmental regulations and plastic use restrictions.

The takeaway

Citizen science remains a powerful engine for legislative change in New Jersey's coastal preservation efforts. Interested residents can continue to check online resources to sign up for future cleanup opportunities.