The amount of cigarette butts on the beach has dropped about as fast as the popularity of Congress, but they are still the top source of beach pollution, according to an analysis by the environmental group, Save Our Shores.

The group has helped install 18 bait tanks around Santa Cruz and Capitola – colorful receptacles for cigarette butts – and says that butt litter has decreased around them by 70 percent. However, in the Sept. 17 cleanup, 36,082 butts were retreived.

"Butts are made of plastic and toxic materials, and are seen as a major threat to marine species locally and worldwide," writes SOS communications director Colleen Bednarz.

Food wrappers and containers were second with a total of 13,127. Also: Caps/lids: 6,412. Plastic beverage bottles: 2,158. Straws/stirrers: 2,129.

Plastic bags came in at 4,749, something SOS hopes will improve with countywide bans on single use plastic bags.

"While the total number of pounds collected during Annual Coastal Cleanup Day 2011 was less this year, our data shows a consistent presence of the top polluters at nearly every beach and river cleanup we host, during every season of the year," says Bednarz.

"Those are cigarette butts, plastic wrappers, plastic bags and bottle caps."

She adds: "Improvements are only seen when a change of behavior happens on land. That's why Save Our Shores works to ban single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam take-out containers in our local jurisdictions, because these items have been consistent, top polluters for years on end, wreaking havoc on our marine environment."

Here are the lowlights of what SOS collected: