Marine Litter
In 2025, Surfrider Foundation Europe achieved new milestones in its fight against marine litter and plastic pollution, securing tangible victories both on the ground and in the European legislative arena. From coastal landfills in Normandy to rivers in Béarn, from cigarette filters to industrial plastic pellets, the organisation has demonstrated that citizen mobilisation and structured advocacy can make decision-makers back down — and bring about lasting change to the rules of the game.
Plastic Origins: a review of a pioneering project
Launched six years ago by Surfrider Foundation Europe and based on the observation that 80% of marine litter originates on land, the Plastic Origins project aimed to better understand and characterise plastic pollution in rivers, the main route by which waste reaches the ocean. Surfrider’s ambition was to identify the most polluted waterways in order to offer local stakeholders concrete solutions to combat this phenomenon, using a citizen science mobile app incorporating artificial intelligence.
At the end of this sixth and final year, the results demonstrate the scale of public engagement generated by the project: 3,200 accounts created, 111 waterways monitored across 8 countries, and nearly 38,500 items of litter reported. All the data collected has been made publicly available as open data, to guide local action and inform advocacy efforts with decision-makers.
The review also highlights the limitations encountered: the complexity of data collection protocols, the difficulty in sustaining public engagement over the long term, and the slow pace of dialogue with decision-makers.
These findings provide valuable insights for improving subsequent programmes, such as Retrace! or the OSPAR river protocol, which now benefit from the tools and lessons learnt from Plastic Origins.
The scientific dissemination of the project also continued in 2025, with the presentation of a scientific poster on the contribution of artificial intelligence to understanding plastic pollution in rivers at two international conferences — IS River in Lyon in July 2025 and the One Ocean Science Congress in Nice in June 2026.
A teaser video was also produced to announce the publication of the White Paper dedicated to the use of AI within the project.
Finally, the programme’s findings were presented at four technical workshops on river waste, accompanied by a Solutions guide for local authorities, now freely available on the Surfrider Foundation Europe website.
Ban the filters:
Surfrider takes a stand
in favour of banning
cigarette filters
Cigarette butts are one of the most commonly collected items of litter on beaches and in waterways around the world. Every year, around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded in the environment worldwide.
Made of plastic – cellulose acetate – they gradually break down under the effects of UV light, moisture and mechanical action, eventually disintegrating into microplastics, a large proportion of which inevitably ends up in the ocean.
This finding is all the more striking given that the WHO has confirmed that no health benefits have ever been demonstrated for cigarette filters; recent studies even suggest that they could exacerbate the risks associated with tobacco use.
In the absence of any proven health benefits, and given the scale of their environmental impact, cigarette filters appear to be a source of pollution that is entirely avoidable.
It was on the basis of this dual concern—both health and environmental—that Surfrider Foundation Europe formalised and made public in 2025 its stance in favour of banning cigarette filters, alongside numerous other organisations committed to this cause.
This stance, which had been in the making for some time, was revealed on 21 May during France Inter’s 8am news programme, marking the launch of the Ban Filters Now campaign, designed to bring this demand to the attention of public decision-makers and to raise public awareness of a strong, necessary and achievable measure.
Industrial plastic pellets: the adoption of a landmark European regulation
For several years, Surfrider Foundation Europe has been conducting in-depth fieldwork and raising awareness about the issue of industrial plastic pellets — those tiny plastic beads which, lost throughout the supply chain, constitute one of the major sources of microplastic pollution.
This work, carried out in particular in France, Belgium and Spain, was reinforced in 2024 by the publication of a strategic report aimed at influencing the European legislative process and calling on the institutions to address this issue.
The efforts of Surfrider and other organisations committed to this cause have borne fruit: following two years of negotiations, the European Parliament has formally adopted the Regulation on the prevention of industrial plastic pellet losses.
This text represents a major step towards the goal of zero pellet loss: it adopts a comprehensive approach to the supply chain and introduces prevention measures, requirements regarding packaging and staff training, as well as mandatory compliance certification issued by an accredited independent body.
This victory has been welcomed by the entire Rethink Plastic alliance, of which Surfrider is a member, and which has been campaigning for the adoption of such legislation for many years.
However, this regulation warrants a significant caveat. Small and medium-sized enterprises handling fewer than 1,500 tonnes of pellets per year per facility are subject only to reduced obligations, thereby falling outside the general scope of the legislation.
Campaigns and actions at landfill sites -
3 victories for Surfrider
Dollemard Landfill
(Seine-Maritime)
For nearly fifty years, all manner of waste — plastics, polystyrene, scrap metal, building materials — has been dumped from the cliffs of the Dollemard plateau, north of Le Havre.
Since the partial collapse of the site in 1998, marine erosion has carried new quantities of waste out to the beaches and the ocean with every tide, in an area that is nevertheless classified as a Natura 2000 site and recognised as a remarkable natural site in Le Havre’s Local Urban Development Plan (PLU).
Following ten years of campaigning by the local Seine-Maritime group, and after the presentation in February 2025 of the action plan long called for by Surfrider and its partner organisations, excavation work on the landfill site has finally been able to begin.
A major victory for the ocean and its users.
Fécamp landfill site
(Seine-Maritime)
In Fécamp, a coastal landfill site containing more than 700,000 m³ of waste buried between 1975 and the early 2000s poses a considerable environmental risk: should the cliff collapse, thousands of tonnes of waste could be washed directly into the ocean, much like what happened in Dollemard.
Alarmed by this situation, the local Surfrider Seine-Maritime group decided in 2025 to take action and raise the issue with the local council. Following several exchanges and a face-to-face meeting with Fécamp Town Hall, the council agreed to launch the first diagnostic studies of the site, carried out in collaboration with CEREMA, the public body responsible for the national plan to close coastal landfills posing a risk of waste being released into the sea.
A decisive first step towards preventing a looming environmental disaster.
Uzos Landfill
(Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
Exposed by the flooding of the Gave de Pau in 2021, the Uzos landfill site has since been continuously releasing waste into the river, with no corrective measures having been taken.
Since its creation in 2022, the local Béarn group has consistently brought this issue to the forefront of local attention: awareness-raising campaigns, statements in the press, meetings with local elected representatives — all part of a sustained effort to secure the site’s remediation (one of 12 sites identified as problematic).
These efforts have finally borne fruit: in 2025, the studies required for the clean-up were carried out and the decision to commence work was formalised and scheduled for 2026. After several years of campaigning, the Béarn local group can celebrate a tangible and encouraging victory, which it will continue to monitor closely until the work is completed.
OSPAR project on the river
Building on fifteen years of experience in implementing the OSPAR Protocol along the coastline, Surfrider Foundation Europe reached a new milestone in 2025 by carrying out the first full year of its ‘OSPAR in Rivers’ monitoring programme, which forms part of the BeMed+ programme.
This project aims to better characterise river pollution, identified as one of the major sources of waste found in the sea.
In this context, an OSPAR River operational guide has been produced for volunteers wishing to get involved in field monitoring. Designed to provide all the methodological guidance required to set up a monitoring programme, this guide is available in four languages — French, English, Spanish and Albanian — reflecting the programme’s European and international scope.