The Great Global Cleanup
We Deserve Clean Beaches
August 30, 2025
MICHAEL KARAPETIAN
The sun dipped behind the horizon and the sky exploded into reds, blues, pinks, and an orange hue that seems to engulf everything. I’m convinced experiencing the sunset on a beach is the best way to do it.
Still, even in this natural beauty, walking back up from the shoreline I stop to pick up a plastic wrapper, a plastic bottle cap, and some plastic film that was on its way into the ocean, into a fish, and eventually back into me – before, of course, I rudely interrupted their journey and threw them into the trash.
Having led The Great Global Cleanup for the past three years, the overwhelming beauty of a beach juxtaposed with the blight of plastic is nothing new, but it’s always annoying to see. Plastic seems to find its way into the sand one way or another – either left behind by beach goers, or worse, washing ashore from the currents.
August 30th is National Beach Day in the US, a reminder that while our beaches are beautiful, they also need care to stay that way. At EARTHDAY.ORG, cleanups are part of our DNA. Over the years, The Great Global Cleanup has joined communities across the world to protect these coastlines. Here are a few of our favorite beach cleanups.
Mumbai, India
For World Cleanup Day 2024, our Earth Day Network India team partnered with the Indian Coast Guard to take on one of Mumbai’s busiest beaches. Over 1,500 volunteers turned out, joined by helicopters flying overhead to document the action.
Scuba divers collected debris drifting just offshore, while volunteers combed the water and the sand for plastic floating and buried. The end of the cleanup was met with speeches, games, and other celebrations on the sand.
Volunteers standing next to massive pile of collected waste, using heavy machinery to in cleanup, and plunging into the ocean searching for trash
Bottom/center: EARTHDAY.ORG’s Debrapriya Dutt speaking to the crown
Volunteers
Yerevan, Armenia
The shore of Yerevan Lake may not be a traditional beach, but it quickly became one of our favorite cleanup sites. For Earth Day 2024, we partnered with Maqoor, a youth-led environmental organization based in Yerevan, Armenia, to restore several spots across the country, including the beach at Yerevan Lake. The shore was covered in plastic, but the young student volunteers went straight to work fishing plastic and other waste out of the waters.
In just a few hours, we collected over 750 pounds of trash. The lake had become a collection place for plastic that flowed down the Hrazdan River. It showcased first hand how important it is to tackle plastic pollution at its source to prevent waste accumulating in spots like this.
Volunteers Pulling Trash out of the Yerevan Lake, Michael Karapetian holding a snail with plastic attached to it, and Student Volunteers sorting waste picked up
Charleston, South Carolina
Every year Make It Cute, a company founded by the actress Amanda Seyfried and her friends, hosts a cleanup on the shores of Isle of Palms, a beautiful coastal beach just outside Charleston. Amanda Seyfried and Bravo’s star of Southern Charm, Craig Conover, hosted the event, and after volunteers arrived, consisting of locals, families, and a large group of kids, the event kicked off.
The kids grabbed bags with enthusiasm and made their way toward the pier, picking up every single piece of trash, plastic, and even cigarette butts along the way. Throughout the cleanup Amanda would stop beachgoers and ask if they had any trash they wanted to discard.
The best thing about a beach cleanup, is that once you’re done you can go for a swim. After the cleanup was finished the volunteers didn’t hesitate to do just that!
Photo 1: Kids holding the trash grabbers walking towards the ocean
Photo 2: (From Left to Right) Amanda Seyfried, Michael Karapetian, Anne Hoehn, Maureen North, holding an EARTHDAY.ORG and Great Global Cleanup Banner
Photo 3: Maureen North and her son picking up trash
Photo 4: Amanda Seyfried and Greg Conover next to a Make It Cute Playhouse
Photo 5: Volunteer and his dog picking up trash on the beach
Photo 6: Amanda Seyfried holding up a bag of trash she collected
Penang Island, Malaysia
EARTHDAY.ORG partnered with The Malaysia Humanitarian Foundation on the beautiful island of Penang to host a beach cleanup, a massive tree planting, and to join the 2024 Asian Environmental Summit.
Penang Island, a tropical paradise off the coast of Malaysia, is a tourist hub. Volunteers took charge of the coastline and removed over 1,800 pounds of trash and plastic pollution.
Along with the cleanup, over 1.2 million trees were planted across the island – all 30 varieties planted were indigenous species to Penang Island.fff
Photo 1: Volunteers Picking Up Trash on Penang Island
Photo 2: Volunteer smiling next to several large bags of trash
Photo 3: Volunteers walking through the woods laughing and holding the trash they collected
Santa Monica, California
The Santa Monica Pier is an iconic staple on the Californian coastline. EARTHDAY.ORG has partnered with Heal The Bay on a few of their monthly Nothin’ But Sand Cleanups over the years. Thousands of volunteers regularly join these beach cleanups scaling across the coast line picking up trash that had almost made its way into the ocean.
Scuba Divers regularly take to the pier where they find trash that had fallen off, which often includes styrofoam cups, misfortunate cell phones, and even computers.
In April 2025, the Nothin’ But Sand Beach Cleanup brought together more than 900 volunteers to tackle pollution along the Santa Monica coastline. This event combined community action, environmental education, and celebration. Volunteers joined forces to remove 274 pounds of trash from the beach, helping to protect marine life and improve the health of California’s iconic shoreline.
Photo 1: Merle Liivang (Left), the Estonian Mermaid, and Michael Karapetian (Right) on the beach in Santa Monica
Photo 2: Trash Pulled out of the ocean from Scuba Divers
Photo 3: Volunteers holding Great Global Cleanup Banner
Photo 4: Students checking in cleanup volunteers
National Beach Day is here, and you can join the fight for a cleaner coast. Join The Great Global Cleanup, check out the Global Cleanup Map and find an event near you.
It’s not just beaches that need our help, the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to fight climate change is under attack from within and needs your support too. Make your voice heard by telling the EPA to protect our air. And, the next time you’re at the beach, make sure to pick up a few pieces of trash while you’re there.
If you want to check out some of our other amazing events, see our underserved community cleanups here.
