Wild, Wacky and Bizarre Items Found During The Latest New Jersey Beach Sweeps

A New Jersey environmental group just dropped a pretty eye-opening summary of all the garbage they pulled from the beach over the past year—and the numbers are kind of wild.

Clean Ocean Action shared the details in its latest Beach Sweeps report for 2024, revealing they picked up a whopping 276,899 pieces of trash.

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While some of the stuff they collected was pretty predictable, a bunch of it definitely wasn’t.

Each year, the group highlights the most frequently found beach litter—what they call the “Dirty Dozen.”

These usual suspects include things like plastic bottle caps, food and candy wrappers, straws, plastic bottles, cigarette butts, six-pack rings, cigar tips, metal cans, bits of packing foam, shredded paper, and random plastic pieces.

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Basically, all the things you’d expect careless beachgoers to leave behind.

But beyond the typical trash, this year’s haul included a long list of items that raise some serious questions.

Clean Ocean Action regularly performs these cleanups, and the upcoming round of Beach Sweeps kicked off on April 12.

It’s part of an ongoing effort to keep New Jersey’s coastline cleaner, safer, and more enjoyable for everyone.

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And if last year’s cleanup is anything to go by, volunteers are in for another eventful season of beach cleaning.

Maybe a few more strange surprises are buried in the sand?

In the meantime, take a look at 2024's most bizarre finds.