Cigarette butts strewn across the sand and plastic bottles bobbing in the waves are the most obvious targets of frustration about litter on Rhode Island beaches.
But the button-sized plastic and foam pieces less visible to the casual observer might be a more serious problem. More than 14,000 of these 2.5-or-smaller centimeter pieces were collected from state shorelines as part of 2025 volunteer-led efforts through the International Coastal Cleanup, according to a new report from Save the Bay.
Tiny trash came in second to cigarette butts, which claimed the dubious honor of no. 1 trash item among the 15,561 pounds of trash collected from September to November 2025. “Other plastic waste” was the third most prevalent, followed by food waste, bottle caps and plastic beverage bottles and cans.
But total cigarette butts, and most types of plastic and glass bottles and cans, decreased compared with cleanup totals in 2024. Plastic and foam pieces, on the other hand, rose in quantity — a potential explanation for why the weight of total trash collected in 2025 was less than the prior year, but the total number of items was higher.
“The data reflects what we are seeing on our shores: lots of single-use items, beverage containers, and plastic and foam pieces caused by materials breaking apart over time,” July Lewis, Save The Bay’s volunteer and internship manager, said in a statement.
And that’s just what volunteers were able to see with their own eyes.
The tiny pieces of plastic break into smaller and smaller segments, and eventually end up ingested by marine life and people, or pile up at the bottom of Narragansett Bay. A new paper published in the September 2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin by University of Rhode Island researchers found higher concentrations of microplastics in the northern part of Narragansett Bay, correlating to more densely populated urban areas. The same study also showed marshes trapped 10 to 50 times more microplastics than seabeds.
The Save the Bay report highlights ways to “stop plastic pollution at the source,” such as picking up pet waste, bringing a trash bag to the beach and encouraging friends and family to stop littering.
Bottle bill, revisited
Not mentioned in the six-page report, but top of mind for coastal advocates: a statewide bottle-deposit refund program to incentivize recycling of plastic and glass bottles and cans.
“The main reason Save the Bay cares about the bottle bill is because of the data you see from our coastal cleanups,” Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay, said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s the only real, proven, effective policy to reduce litter from bottle waste.”
Various iterations of a bottle bill have failed to advance in either chamber of the Rhode Island General assembly, despite a two-year review by an 18-member legislative panel, which was unsuccessful in finding common ground between business and environmental groups.
On the final day of the 2025 session, lawmakers passed what some dubbed a compromise solution, calling for yet another study of the topic – this time, by a third-party consultant hired by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. The study is due by Dec. 1, 2026, with an interim status report expected by April 1.
Does that sink bottle bill legislation this year? Not necessarily.
Rep. Carol McEntee, the South Kingstown Democrat who has championed a bottle-deposit program for years, pledged to reintroduce her proposal in 2026, even though the state-commissioned study will not be completed before the session ends in June.
“There’s no reason the Assembly couldn’t pass a bottle bill this year, even with an implementation analysis still going on,” Thorp said.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Valarie Lawson did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Shekarchi indicated in a Boston Globe interview in December that he wanted to wait until the study was finished before considering additional legislation.
Even if that’s the case, Thorp said having a piece of legislation to point to when educating lawmakers, retailers and the wider public is important.
“We’re not going to let a whole year go by and not do any advocacy on the bottle bill,” Thorp said. “There’s still a lot of education that needs to happen.”
Bonus: robot vacuum
Save the Bay’s trash collection report reflects cleanups conducted from September to November 2025 by 2,971 volunteers across all five counties. Data might change when the global organizer Ocean Conservancy publishes its final report this summer.
Unusual items documented in the 2025 cleanup report in Rhode Island included a robot vacuum, a bird feeder, a nitrous oxide tank and 220 individual shoes and slippers.
The 2026 International Coastal Cleanup will take place from September to November. For more information or to sign up to volunteer, visit Save the Bay’s website.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
