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A new paper published in is calling for the scientific community to establish one global model of how to establish a citizen science project to clear litter from beaches, which would help with the usability of the data collected.

Dr. Matthew Peacock, Research Fellow at the School of Health Sciences, says, "As more people worry about pollution in our oceans, citizen science is becoming a popular way for the public to get involved. Volunteers help scientists by collecting litter from beaches and, importantly, turning it into useful data.

"But the full power of public involvement has not yet been reached. Although beach surveys are happening around the world, they often work separately, and there is no common way of doing them that brings their efforts together. To really make a difference, these projects need to collect and catalog waste in a way that is consistent, reliable and easy to repeat, and they must share the data more effectively.

"Bringing together the data collected by citizen scientists across the world into a single, global model would help researchers and policymakers better understand where ocean waste is coming from. This will allow them to create stronger laws and actions to stop pollution at its source."