It was a slow start for Wareham residents participating in Coastsweep on Saturday morning, but thankfully not many volunteers were needed to clean a small area at Swifts Beach.

“It's not that big, it's not that dirty,” said Nora Bicki, a member of Don't Trash Wareham. This year marked the second that the group opted to join thousands of other volunteers across Massachusetts for Coastsweep, a state initiative aimed at cleaning up the coast.

At 10 a.m., there were seven volunteers looking closely for trash and litter. They had to look pretty closely since Swifts Beach has remained relatively clean since last year.

At least that's what Bicki hopes to confirm with collected data.

“People are more aware of litter," she said. "I'd like to see that we picked up less trash than last year."

Coastsweep is a state-run program administered by the Office of Coastal Zone Management hosts cleanups September through November. It is part of the larger International Coastal Cleanup organized by Ocean Conservancy in Washington, D.C. and has been held since 1987.

“We have to document every piece of trash because the state is funding this,” said Anne Eckman, a volunteer. “We have to be pretty accurate.”

The most common find: cigarette butts – both in Wareham and across the state. In two-hour periods on each beach last year, volunteers picked up 825 cigarette butts on Swifts, 1,1016 on Little Harbor and 2,840 on Onset and Shell Point beaches.

“Onset's the beach that will need the most cleaning,” said Bicki.

Swifts beach was the first of three beaches to be cleaned. The cleanup on Little Harbor beach is scheduled for Sept. 24 (rain date, Sept. 25) and Onset and Shell Pointe beaches will be cleaned on Oct. 1 (rain date, Oct. 2). All are welcome to help in the effort. Cleanups start at 10 a.m. and end at noon.