The Washington Coastsavers will be holding a beach cleanup on April 23 starting at 9am and going until 1pm. You can check at www.coastsavers.org/index.php/cleanup/ for a map of specific beaches in Washington that the Coastsavers will be at.
Plastic litter washes ashore, plastic wrapping from crabber's bait and other junk, the earth's oceans receive anywhere between 6 million and 13 million metric tons of plastic each year. Litter takes an enormous toll on local wildlife of all kinds, through a multitude of ways. The wildlife can become entangled and entrapped in the litter, or ingest the litter and become sick.
Washington shorelines collect a lot of marine debris, and of the debris plastics are predominantly the most abundant type of debris; up to 92% of marine debris is plastic. Some of the debris comes from local sources and other debris can come from a massive collection point in the ocean called a "gyre" that can circle within the ocean in the Northwest.