and knowledge about marine litter and increases the likelihood that individuals will take continued action to address the issue. for example, hartley et al. (2015) claims that after volunteering to clean a local beach with their school, children reported engaging in mitigation and prevention behavior more frequently, such as purchasing fewer, single-use plastic items, appropriately disposing of their waste, and recycling. uneputty et al. (1998) found that individuals who had volunteered to clean beaches continued to remove trash from beaches and not litter months after they had participated in a volunteer program. furthermore, surveys and interviews have revealed that once individuals begin volunteering in marine conservation efforts, they want to continue. multiple studies have determined that volunteers, whether organized through schools and universities or individual interest, can significantly reduce the quantity of solid waste on beaches. numerous volunteer beach cleaning programs have been facilitated by schools that promote service learning opportunities. these studies, in conjunction with research conducted with participants that joined programs entirely voluntarily, have demonstrated that groups that were and were not previously concerned about marine litter can experience an increase in awareness and knowledge, as well as positive behavior change through the hands on experience and learning involved in volunteering. beach cleaning volunteers reap the same, if not more, benefits from their participation as individuals who participate in other coastal activities. wyles et al. (2017) studied the impact various coastal activities- beach cleaning, rock pooling, and walking on the beach- had on well being and discovered that all three led to a similar betterment in mood. however, individuals who participated in beach cleaning described a more intense sense of fulfillment when compared to the groups. while further research has not been completed on the mental and emotional benefits of beach cleaning, volunteers who promote environmental stewardship have reported improvements in their well being. public engagement and collection methods a study conducted in catalonia in the late 1990s found that, on the beaches of the llobregat delta, engaging with the public through manual methods of beach cleanup improved citizen participation as compared to mechanical methods. moving towards manual cleaning by citizens can benefit both the environment and aid in the local municipalities work of keeping the beaches clean. dominguez's 2005 study found a correlation between citizens and the use of manual beach cleaning methods. this study also found that the amount of manual labor as well as employees required to manually clean stretches of beaches to be much less than anticipated. most polluted and cleanest beaches in the world most polluted beaches many researchers report that the ocean currents transfer floating litter by the five subtropical gyres. thus, anthropocentric marine debris is present in all oceans, beaches and at the sea surface, even the arctic sea ice contains small plastics particles or micro-plastics. according to bhatia (2019), the ten most polluted beaches in the world are: phu quoc, vietnam. maya bay, thailand. kamilo beach, hawaii, usa. kuta beach, indonesia. juhu beach, india. kota kinabalu, malaysia. guanabara bay, brazil. serendipity beach, cambodia. haina, dominican republic. san clemente pier, california, usa. cleanest beaches according to nguyen (2019), there are still some clean beaches around the world. to find out if a beach is clean or not is to look for a blue flag. the blue flag is the world's most recognized voluntary eco-labels awarded to beaches, marinas, and sustainable boating tourism operators. the blue flag shows when a beach has high environmental and quality standards. the six the cleanest blue flag awarded beaches are: victoria beach, canada. santa maria beach, los cabos. dado beach, israel. mellieha bay, malta. palmestranden beach, denmark. zona balnear da lagoa, portugal. gallery beach cleaning vehicles beach cleaning vehicles after beach cleaning by a cleaning vehicle oil beach cleaning micro-plastic