The total amount gathered was 2 tonnes and 5.9kg, an increase of more than 600kg on last year.
Dunedin City Council waste strategy officer Catherine Broad said much of the 1.347 tonnes put in the landfill included tyres, plastic bags and fast-food packaging.
She said she would like to see teams from fast-food companies help with the clean-up.
Almost a third of the material collected this year could be recycled and this included 47kg of plastic bottles (five full wheelie bins), 61kg of aluminium cans and tins, 100kg of scrap metal and a "shocking" 404kg of glass.
Last year, the amount of recyclable material was much lower, at 14.5% of the total 1.4 tonnes of waste gathered in the clean-up, which covers the coast from Waikouaiti to Taieri Mouth.
People were littering beaches with material which could harm others or marine life.
It was hard to comprehend why people dumped scrap metal for which they could receive money, she said.
Department of Conservation community relations ranger Liz Sherwood said blood-pressure-measuring equipment took the prize for the most unusual find.
She estimated about 300 people had taken part in the event, organised by the Department of Conservation and the Dunedin City Council for Seaweek.
Keith Malcolm and his family, including 12-year-old twins David and Jack, again took the prize for the most rubbish collected, gathering almost 211kg from around the mouth of the Leith River.
Ms Sherwood said the family had won this section in each of the four years the event had been held.
The area where they collected the rubbish was a bad one for "illegal dumping".
Ms Sherwood praised the efforts of the volunteers, saying there had been good coverage of the whole area.
It was clearly going to take a while for the message to get through to all people that they should take any rubbish home from the beach and recycle it, she said.
