Marine debris is a significant issue that poses threats to coastal and marine ecosystems, coastal economies, and human health. Barrier islands are often an accumulation point of offshore floating marine debris. To mitigate environmental impacts, the Barrier Island Cleanup Initiative is focused on removing marine debris from barrier islands. Currently, there is a limited understanding of how factors such as vegetation and island morphology influence debris accumulation points, which hinders the prioritization of cleanup locations. To help address this issue, we use unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and volunteer-based cleanup efforts to map marine debris while concurrently collecting environmental data such as elevation profiles, vegetation surveys, and tracking short-term habitat change along Mississippi’s barrier islands. This data will be used to develop relationships between environmental variables and debris accumulation that will also be used to prioritize cleanup locations as part of an ongoing barrier island cleanup program.