International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day was held on September 20, 2025. It takes place annually on the third Saturday of September. The ICC was founded more than 35 years ago by Linda Maraniss and Kathy O’Hara, both of whom worked at Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. Since its inception, more than 18 million volunteers worldwide have collected over 173 million kilograms of trash.
The ICC is distinct from World Cleanup Day, which is also observed in September. World Cleanup Day was launched in 2018 by Let’s Do It World (LDIW), a global organization accredited by UNEP and UNEA. The group claims it has become the largest civic movement in history, uniting 211 countries and territories—representing 95% of UN member states—and mobilizing 91 million volunteers, or about 1.1% of the global population.
The Philippines began participating in the ICC around 1994. In 2003, the event was institutionalized through Proclamation No. 470, series of 2003, signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, designating the third Saturday of September as Philippine ICC Day.
Last year, 486,706 volunteers joined the cleanup worldwide, almost the same number as the previous year. They collected 17,820,206 pieces of trash, an increase from 14,339,832 in 2023. The United States had the highest number of participants with 144,423, followed closely by the Philippines with 134,125 volunteers.
In previous years, cigarette butts consistently ranked as the most commonly collected item during the cleanup, followed by plastic drink bottles, bottle caps, snack and candy wrappers, and disposable grocery bags. Also appearing regularly in the top ten were other types of plastic bags, takeout food containers, disposable cups and plates, straws and stirrers, and paper-based cups and plates.
By 2024, the ranking shifted: food wrappers took the top spot, with plastic beverage bottles in second place and cigarette butts falling to third. Other major contributors included plastic bottle caps, takeaway containers, assorted plastic bags, grocery bags, paper cups and plates, disposable plastic tableware, and polystyrene food packaging.
In the Philippines, nearly 3.8 million pieces of trash were gathered in 2024, up sharply from about 2.6 million the year before. The leading items were snack wrappers, drink bottles, and grocery bags, followed by other plastic bags, caps, disposable tableware made of both paper and plastic, cigarette butts, takeaway containers, and foam packaging.
The 31% increase in collected waste has raised concerns about the effectiveness of Republic Act No. 11898, known as the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022. The law obliges certain companies to take responsibility for the plastic packaging they put into the local market, ensuring it is either reduced at the source, or recovered for reuse, recycling, treatment, or proper disposal. While the intent is to push manufacturers toward circular waste management, it is still too early to determine whether the law is succeeding or falling short. A more thorough evaluation over several years will be needed to measure its true impact.
Meanwhile, the delay in adopting a legally binding international treaty to curb plastic pollution is a setback—but it is not too late. Individual and community initiatives remain essential in complementing government and global efforts to address plastic pollution.
Next year’s ICC will once again call for volunteers across the globe. Joining the effort—whether by cleaning a shoreline, a riverbank, or even a neighborhood street—helps turn awareness into action. Together, we can prevent plastics from reaching the ocean in the first place and work toward cleaner, healthier communities.