New tool shows impact of removing plastics from beach. SC cleanup events to join

Have you ever wondered how many marine animals’ lives you save by cleaning up plastic from the beach? A new calculator will tell you.

Ocean Conservancy’s new Wildlife Impact Calculator allows users to input the amount of plastic collected from beaches and waterways, and it will estimate how many seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals are being protected had they ingested those plastics.

“One of the biggest barriers to action is not knowing if what you do actually matters,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Director of Ocean Plastics Research Dr. Britta Baechler. “This tool answers that question.”

The tool is powered by peer-reviewed science that quantifies how much plastic is too much when it’s ingested by marine life. After nearly four years of analyzing over 10,000 records of plastic ingestion in wildlife, the study was published in November 2025 and the tool launched March 23, 2026.

At least 1,300 marine species are known to ingest plastic, and that number continues to grow as more scientific studies are released, Baechler said.

Each year during September, Ocean Conservancy hosts an International Coastal Cleanup involving volunteers from over 100 countries to remove trash from beaches and waterways. Almost 400 million pounds of trash have been cleaned from the Earth’s coasts and waterways after more than 40 years.

Single-use plastics, like food wrappers, plastic bottles and cigarette butts, make up the top items found in trash cleanups globally.

How much trash is cleaned from SC beaches each year?

South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, in conjunction with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, hosts a beach and river sweep every third Saturday of September. Some areas have to schedule dates for prior or latter weekends, but their totals are still counted toward the single-day event.

In 2024, over 2,500 volunteers collected nearly 13,500 pounds of trash from South Carolina’s coast in a day’s worth of cleanup.

According to SC Sea Grant Consortium’s past years’ results, volunteers for the state’s annual beach and river sweeps have collected over 275,000 pounds of trash since 2010.

Earth Month cleanup events in the state

Palmetto Pride coordinates Keep South Carolina Beautiful, the state’s affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. The organization has scheduled cleanup events around the state for the month of April. The list below includes coastal cleanups from Palmetto Pride affiliates and other organizations.

April 4

• Great Charleston Cleanup, 9 to 11 a.m., 823 Meeting St., Charleston
• Georgetown District 7 Cleanup, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., 129 Screven St., Georgetown

April 6 & 20

• Isle of Palms Cleanup, 5:30 to 7 p.m., 1100 block of Ocean Blvd. beach access, Isle of Palms

April 11

• Pinckney Island 50th Anniversary Cleanup, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pinckney Wildlife Refuge, Bluffton

April 18

• Surfside Beach Sweep, 9 to 10 a.m., 3rd Ave. N. Beach Access, Myrtle Beach
• Kiawah Island Litter Sweep, 9 to 11 a.m., 867 Kiawah Island Parkway, Kiawah Island
• Ocean Blue Project’s Shore to Sea CleanUp Tour, Myrtle Beach State Park Pier, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., 4401 S. Kings Hwy., Myrtle Beach

April 22

• The Outside Foundation #EARTHDAYHHI, 9 to 11 a.m., Coligny Beach Park, Hilton Head Island

This story was originally published April 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM.