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Urban areas are hotspots for marine litter. Plastic materials are the most common type of beach litter and can fragment into even smaller pieces. A total of 24 sampling stations were distributed along the coast of Salvador, Brazil, from which every litter item > 2 cm was sampled. A total of 17,089 items were sampled from the beaches of Salvador in two different survey seasons (10,416 during the winter and 6,673 during the summer). Plastic represented 87.45% of all materials sampled during the winter and 85.24%, during the summer. In both seasons, the majority of the sampled beaches were classified as extremely dirty according to the Clean-Coast Index. Plastic fragments were found in every sampling station in both field surveys, representing 45.7% of the overall plastic items sampled. Tourism/recreation activities appeared to be important sources of litter to the area. Keywords: plastic pollution; plastic fragments; coastal management; urban beaches; coastal currents. 16 OCT 2015; Peer review: 12 NOV 2015; Revised: 18 NOV 2015; Accepted: 24 NOV 2015; Available on-line: 26 NOV 2015 This article contains supporting information online at http://www.aprh.pt/rgci/pdf/rgci-649_Fernandino_Supporting-Information.pdf Fernandino et al. (2016) RESUMO