News

The “My Sea” Green Expedition campaign has concluded, and the 2025 summer marine litter monitoring results have been compiled. Over 30 days, with the involvement of volunteers in daily segments, 44 marine litter monitoring sessions were carried out.

According to the marine litter monitoring conducted by “My Sea” in 2025, on average 306 litter items are found per 100 meters of Latvia’s coastal beaches, while an average of 33 different types of waste are identified on each beach. This means that the pollution level has decreased by 8% compared to 2024, when 334 litter items were found per 100 meters of beach.

Founder of “My Sea,” representative of the Environmental Education Fund, Jānis Ulme: “Of course, it is gratifying that the positive trend in reducing coastal waste continues this year as well, yet we evaluate this season’s results with caution, taking into account the specific conditions of this summer. Concluding another expedition and summer monitoring series, I would like to express gratitude to our cooperation partners, as well as to the ‘My Sea’ expedition participants and volunteers. Without their support, it would not have been possible to implement this year’s ambitious plans – especially considering both the changing weather conditions and the additional research on mesoplastics and plastic pellet pollution on Latvia’s coast. Although there is still much to be done to achieve the Good Environmental Status goals for the sea, it is rewarding to see that in recent years improvements have been observed in many coastal areas – both in public awareness and management, as well as in the implementation of infrastructure and litter prevention measures. It is pleasing that these improvements are now reflected in the data as well.”

The overall results of the campaign 'My Sea' 2025 are available here

From the total amount of waste, evaluating the material composition on beaches, 77.6% consists of various plastic products and polymer materials, followed by paper and cardboard (8%), metal (4%), with smaller shares for rubber, glass and ceramics, food waste, textiles and clothing, wood, and chemical substances. At the top of the waste type ranking are smoking-related litter (26.4%), plastic food packaging (12.3%), unidentifiable plastic fragments (12.1%), and identifiable paper and cardboard fragments (7.2%). Of the 15 most commonly found waste types on the coast, 9 are plastic waste.

Evaluating by municipality, the most polluted beaches this season are in the city of Liepāja (839 items per 100 meters of beach), while the cleanest are in Limbaži municipality (111 items per 100 meters of beach).

This year, when evaluating individual beaches, the list of clean beaches has shrunk, reaching a total of only four beaches along Latvia’s nearly 500 km-long coastline. Of these, only one meets the EU Good Environmental Status criteria – Lauču akmens beach in Limbaži municipality (16 items per 100 meters). It is followed by Abragciems (50 items), Engure central beach (75 items), and Ziemupe (77 items).

Meanwhile, the dirtiest individual beach this year has been identified as Liepāja Karosta beach, where 1,522 litter items were found per 100 meters of beach. Also at the top of the dirtiest beaches list are Jūrmala Majori beach (848 items) and Liepāja central beach (754 items).

Within the campaign, mesoplastic and plastic pellet monitoring was carried out on Latvia’s coast for the first time. Plastic pellets were found in 16 marine litter monitoring sites, already affecting 36% of Latvia’s coastline in total. Although the volume of pollution is not yet large, the collected data indicate that the plastic pellet problem is relevant both on Latvia’s coast and throughout the Baltic Sea.