National monitoring data for beach litter from two Baltic Sea beaches in Denmark, 2020-21

This dataset represents a part of the Danish national monitoring data for marine litter at reference beaches in Denmark 2020 and 2021. The purpose of the monitoring program is to provide systematical and comparable data for assessment of the state, impact and trends of marine litter and thereby comply with the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). National monitoring of marine litter at beaches was initiated in Denmark in 2015, and on request from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the monitoring activities involving these two beaches in the Baltic Sea are performed by DCE – Danish Centre for Environment and Energy. The results of the monitoring surveys performed at these two beaches show that plastic comprised the majority of all beach litter items. The amounts of beach litter were in all regions above the EU threshold value of 20 litter items per 100 m beach length. Among some of the most common type of litter items were plastic pieces 2.5-50 cm, polystyrene pieces 2.5-50 cm and String and cord (diameter less than 1cm).