Volunteers at Old Orchard Beach keep the shore sparkling on the fifth of July

Cigarette butts, lone flip-flops and un-lit sparklers filled blue Lowe’s buckets to the brim Sunday at Old Orchard Beach. Under the pier, blue tarps displayed the Surfrider Foundation’s beach cleanup loot, waiting to be sorted by volunteers.

The Surfrider Foundation’s Maine chapter has been holding beach cleanups at Old Orchard Beach the day after the Fourth of July for several years. The nationwide environmental nonprofit hosts events that promote the fight against climate change and plastic pollution, Maine Chapter Chair Paula Slayton said.

Festivities on Independence Day inspired the foundation to dub the fifth of July “The Dirtiest Beach Day of the Year,” and launch a cleanup. Volunteers from near and far gather for the event and recover hundreds of pounds of trash every year.

In 2025, around 1,500 volunteers across the nation collected a combined 50,000 pounds of trash.

This year at Old Orchard Beach alone, 25 people signed up in advance and several other beachgoers pitched in throughout the morning.

The event started at 10 a.m. and volunteers had collected 30 pounds of beach garbage in the first 20 minutes. They weighed a total of 86 pounds by the time the event ended at noon.

Slayton said she’s noticed a trend in the last two years: More people have been signing up for their events, but there’s beginning to be less trash every time. That’s a sign their efforts are paying off, she said. But there’s still work to be done.

“The truth is, we’ll never beach clean our way out of the problem,” Slayton said. “It all comes down to plastic, and the production of plastic and the dumping of plastic in the ocean.”

The most common items found buried beneath the sand are plastic based. But every piece of garbage − from glass liquor bottles to fishing lures − are catalogued and entered into a data sheet.

The numbers help the foundation push for action in Congress. One initiative, “Hold on to you Butt,” aims to reduce cigarette butt pollution, and another, “Skip the Stuff,” targets extra packaging like plastic cutlery. Both, volunteers said, are common fifth of July beach finds.

Sean Smith, a Massachusetts resident, said he drove up just for the cleanup event. He picks up garbage whenever he can and knew the event at Old Orchard would be a good opportunity to keep pitching in.

“I just knew the beach was going to be trashed,” he said. “Today, I found a lighter with fuel in it, and just hazards that kids might actually find. Unused fireworks, too.” The danger to wildlife and an effort to keep the beach looking nice also motivated him to make the drive.

The event attracted participants of all ages, who walked along the beach with a pair of kitchen tongs, gloves and a bucket all provided by Surfriders.

Cape Elizabeth High School students Lilly Northup, 15, and Price Woolls, 16, said they enjoy beach cleanups. Northup said she has done other beach cleanups with Surfriders in the past, and appreciates the opportunity to participate in an organized event.

“I feel like I’ve been so busy this summer, so it’s so nice to get out and be able to help out the community like this,” Woolls added.

When volunteers completed their hour weaving between tanning beach goers and wading through deep sand, they made their way back to the blue Surfriders tent at the pier. They dumped their finds onto the tarps and worked with organizers to categorize.

Though the piles of trash aren’t specifically meant to demonstrate how polluted the beach becomes, it has become an unofficial representation, Slayton said.

One beach visitor who did not sign up provided her own small pile of garbage, which she decided to collect upon realizing there was a beach cleanup happening. This happens frequently, Slayton said. 

Organizers host several events across the state, but the fifth of July cleanup has helped to spread out volunteerism in an area that regularly shows signs of water pollution.

“For us, our volunteership is centralized, kind of around Portland,” Slayton said. “Old Orchard is traditionally one of the beaches that has some contamination. It’s a huge beach, so we try to go where we can have the most impact.”