TEST TEST PLEASE IGNORE: 5,000 volunteers ready to clean up Ireland’s beaches.

As part of an international push to clean waterways, beach lovers are being encouraged to clean up Ireland’s beaches.

From the 18th to the 20th of September, over 5,000 volunteers from all over Ireland will participate in the Big Beach Clean. The Big Beach Clean is an event held annually as part of an initiative to clear Ireland’s waterways of litter. The group is appealing to beach lovers nationwide to lend a hand in this years campaign.

As part of 2025’s clean-up, 60 tonnes of litter were removed from Irish waterways, with almost 11,000 volunteers taking part in the clean up operation. 

The Big Beach Clean is part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), which is led by Ocean Conservancy. In 2025, there were over 630,000 volunteers who took part in the International Coastal Cleanup. 

Ahead of the event, Manager of An Taisce’s Clean Coasts, Bronagh Moore said “now more than ever it’s important that we show up and play our part in protecting our ocean. We encourage everyone no matter your location, to get involved and record your findings.” 

The deadline for registering for the Big Beach Clean is the 7th of September. For those who register before this date will receive a couple of goodies to assist with their clean up including a clean up kit, materials to facilitate the clean up and a tool to track the litter picked up, either a Clean Coasts Marine Litter Card or the Swell App.

In 2025’s Big Beach Clean, fishing gear, pieces of plastic, microplastics, cigarette butts and food wrappers were the most commonly collected.  This led to Clean Coasts challenging companies to pick up as many cigarette butts within 15 minutes, in which one group picked up 800.

In a statement made by Clean Coasts, they say that the litter data collected is used to shape international policies tackling ocean pollution. Also, data produced during past Big Beach Cleans have been used by Clean Coasts to run campaigns like “Bin the Butt” and “Break Up With Plastic” in Ireland. 

 
The Head of Marketing and PR at Kia Ireland, Cathal Kealey said “Our global support of ‘The Ocean Cleanup‘ has a long-term objective of removing 90% of floating ocean plastic worldwide by 2040.” He added that KIA’s support of the Big Beach Clean makes sure that the necessary clean up kits are given to volunteers across the country. 

if you are interested you can register here.