Beach clean forms
Key forms for beach cleaning
Make sure your beach clean runs smoothly with all the essential forms in place. From the survey sheet you’ll use to record what you collect, to a handy ID guide that helps you classify each item correctly, these resources are vital for a successful event.
Litter survey form 2025
Download our litter survey sheet below to log the litter you collect during your clean. We recommend taking a handful of paper forms with you.
Beach clean editable poster
Promote your year-round beach cleans using the editable poster.
Photo ID guide
We've created a handy litter photo ID guide for volunteers which supports our litter survey form. We've focussed on items in particular that are hard to identify or tricky to categorise.
Organiser forms
We want every beach clean organiser to feel confident before and during their event. These forms include a guide that introduces who we are, explains why beach cleans and survey data are vital to the health of our oceans, and outlines key health and safety information for the day.
The beach summary form allows you to record details about your clean, including weather conditions, the location, any unusual items you find, and a space to summarise all the litter survey forms completed by your team in one place.
We’ve also included a simple template letter you can send to the owner of the beach where you’ll be hosting your event. It explains how the clean will run, why it matters, and what to expect on the day.
If you’re unsure who owns the beach, we recommend contacting your local council. If they don’t own the land themselves, they should be able to point you in the right direction.
Volunteer briefing guide for organisers
We've put together a handy guide explaining how to brief the volunteers taking part in your beach clean and survey.
Beach owner notification letter template
We've created a simple template for a letter you can send to whoever owns the beach that you'll be organising
Beach clean summary form
Access our simple form to ensure that you collect all of the data you need on the day. Add details about your beach clean such as weather, location, and any unusual items you found.
Health and safety forms
Check out the forms created to make sure everyone stays safe while participating in a beach clean. In order to be covered by our insurance event organisers must make time for appropriate planning, risk assessment and minimisation prior to their event.
We also ask that organisers that have completed a risk assessment for their events, provide health and safety briefings before the cleans and get consent from parents or guardians for under 16s to take part in the clean are covered by our insurance.
Public liability insurance certificate
Download a copy of our public liability insurance certificate. Some landowners may ask to see a copy of this before giving you permission to go ahead with the event.
Risk assessment template
Our risk assessment has been developed to include the most likely risks associated with the beach environment and the activity of beach cleaning with your group. Adapt it to suit your event location and make note of any additional risks present on the day
Photography consent forms
We love sharing photos and film from our beach clean events to show the full extent of the issue of coastal litter as well as the incredible work that our volunteers do to help tackle the problem but getting consent is key.
For parental consent, please complete for each young person with their parent, carer or guardian. Once you have completed the form please take a photo or scan the document and send to beachwatch@mcsuk.org.
We will securely file the consent on your behalf and you must shred the original document and delete the scan or photo in order to comply with our strict data protection protocol.
Photo and film consent form
We'd love you to share photos and videos of your clean with us, but we also take consent very seriously, and if organisers, or anyone involved in the beach clean are planning on sharing these with us we ask that you complete the attached form
Parental consent form
In order to be covered by our public liability insurance you must ensure that you have a competed parental consent form for anyone under the age of 16 years.
A guide to litter sources
When you record litter items during a beach clean you're not only helping to keep our coast free of litter and pollution, you're also helping us record where the litter has come from.
To help you understand a bit more about the items you'll be recording we've created this guide to litter sources, to help you understand where it all comes from.
Please note: this guide to litter sources is currently being reviewed and updated
Wildlife Aware Beach Clean Code
We want to ensure that beach cleans cause as little disturbance to coastal wildlife as possible. We've partnered with Bird Aware Solent, the 2 Minute Foundation and Final Straw Foundation to create a Wildlife Aware Beach Clean Code. This guidance encourages everyone to follow the Coastal Code and teaches about what beach cleaners can do to help wildlife thrive.
There's a version for Beach Clean Organisers and Beach Clean Volunteers which you can download below.
