Dr Liam Carr and Geography MSc student Jeff Black used their winter holiday to document the plastic load present on the island of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Over a 10 days and nearly 4km of beachfront, they collected nearly 1,500 items of litter, most of which plastic, from nine beaches within St. Croix’s East End Marine Park. They also sieved 135 litres of sand for microplastic fragments. This research is part of a larger project funded by St. Croix Science and Conservation, which focuses on educating local residents on how they can help reduce local contributions of coastal and marine plastic pollution.