The cleanest beach this year is Miķeļtornis in Ventspils, while the dirtiest - Majori and Lielupe beaches in Jūrmala, as well as Liepāja beaches.
The cleanest beaches on the Latvian coast were found in Talsi municipality, with an average of 149 litters per 100 meters, while the dirtiest beaches were in Jūrmala city, with an average of 950 litters per 100 meters.
Over a month, the campaign participants walked more than 500 kilometers along the Latvian coast from Estonia to Lithuania. This year, data shows that Latvia's coastline has an average of 344 items of litter per 100 meters of beach, compared to 375 items per 100 meters last year.
The EU threshold for good marine environmental status is 20 items per 100 meters.
36 different types of litter were identified on beaches, with plastics and polymers accounting for the majority or almost 76% of all litter, while the most frequent type of litter this year is still plastic cigarette butts, followed by plastic food packaging, pieces of cardboard, plastic toys, as well as plastic ropes, small plastic bags and also balloons.
The overall figures are still not encouraging, but the campaigners have seen a positive impact in the data from Latvia's recently introduced deposit system, with a slight decrease in plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans on beaches.
