Beaches need cleaning every day, not only during clean-up drives. Plastic makes up most beach litter in India, most of it comes from tourism and public littering, and it keeps arriving with every tide and every crowd. Volunteer drives build awareness; mechanised cleaning keeps the sand clean in between.

Key facts

• India's coastline is more than 7,500 km long.
• A CMFRI survey of 254 beaches (October 2013 – January 2014) graded 173 as clean or very clean (51 very clean, 122 clean). Extremely littered beaches were found in Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat and the Andaman Islands.
• A pan-India citizen-science study (33 beaches in 2019, 30 in 2021) found plastic made up 65% of beach litter in 2019 and 74% in 2021, with tourism and public littering the source of roughly 60% of it.
• Machines such as the BeachTech 2000S sift sand and return it to the beach; people handle rocky areas, edges and segregation.

What is the state of India's beaches?

India's coastline supports tourism, fishing and some of the country's largest cities. It also absorbs plastic, sewage, industrial effluent and everyday litter.

The picture is mixed. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) surveyed 254 beaches in 2013–14 and found 173 of them clean or very clean, but also identified heavily littered stretches in Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat and the Andamans. A later citizen-science study of beaches across India found that plastic, mostly single-use plastic, made up about two-thirds or more of the litter, and that tourism and public littering were the main sources.

Why do beach clean-ups matter?

• Marine life. Animals ingest plastic or get tangled in it. Removing debris from the beach keeps it from reaching the water.
• Public health. Beaches are public spaces. Glass, medical waste and contaminated litter are a direct risk to visitors, especially children.
• Tourism and livelihoods. Coastal towns depend on visitors and fishing. A littered beach loses both.
• Cutting pollution at source. Litter left on sand is washed into the sea by the next high tide.
• Research and awareness. Clean-ups generate data on what is being dropped and where, which helps cities plan better waste systems.

Plastic that breaks into microplastics also enters the food chain. Research on the effects on human health is still developing, but the case for removing plastic before it fragments is already clear.

Why aren't volunteer drives enough?

Drives matter. Mass events, such as the August 2022 clean-up in Visakhapatnam where more than 22,000 volunteers collected roughly 76 tonnes of waste, bring communities together and make the problem visible.

But litter returns daily. Tides, tourists, festivals and match days refill a beach within hours of a drive ending. Raking by hand cannot cover kilometres of sand every morning, and it cannot reach waste buried below the surface.

How does mechanised beach cleaning work?

Beach-cleaning machines such as the BeachTech range are towed or self-propelled units that lift sand, screen it, and drop the cleaned sand back onto the beach. What is left in the screen, such as plastic bottles, glass, metal, cigarette butts and smaller fragments, goes into a hopper for disposal or recycling.

Mechanisation works best alongside people. Machines handle the long stretches of open sand. Crews handle rocky areas, edges and the segregation of recyclables. At Mahim Beach in Mumbai, for example, volunteers cleaned the rocky sections while a BeachTech 2000S cleaned the sand.

Where is this already working?

Pamtec's beach-cleaning machines operate in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and other coastal cities. Read the field reports:

• Cleaning RK Beach, Vizag: before, during and after mechanisation
• World Cleanup Day 2023 at Mahim Beach, Mumbai
• Blue Flag certification and the role of machinery
• Pamtec's 2023 beach-cleaning milestones

Frequently asked questions

Why is there so much plastic on Indian beaches?

A national citizen-science study attributed roughly 60% of beach litter to tourism and public littering. Rivers and drains carrying waste to the sea add to it.

How often should a beach be cleaned?

High-footfall beaches benefit from daily cleaning. Beaches that host festivals, matches or other events need extra runs straight after the crowd leaves.

Do beach-cleaning machines damage the sand?

Machines built for beaches sift the sand and return it to the beach. The aim is to remove waste, not sand.

Can a machine clean rocky areas?

No. Rocky sections still need manual clean-up. At Mahim Beach, volunteers cleaned the rocky areas while the machine cleaned the sand.

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