Endangered turtles share this Mexican beach with SpaceX rocket debris. The company says there’s no risk of harm

The debris arrives in the rockets’ wake: melted plastics, aluminum and pieces of blue adhesive. It all ends up stranded on the sands of Bagdad beach in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, home to an endangered species of sea turtle. Just across the border lies Starbase, SpaceX’s launchpad and company town in what once was called Boca Chica, Texas.

The debris arrives in the rockets’ wake: melted plastics, aluminum and pieces of blue adhesive. It all ends up stranded on the sands of Bagdad beach in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, home to an endangered species of sea turtle. Just across the border lies Starbase, SpaceX’s launchpad and company town. Since November, Conibio Global, a small non-governmental organization, has taken on a daunting task: cleaning up trash from SpaceX, one of the most powerful companies in the world. Jesús Elías Ibarra, founder of Conibio Global, told CNN that in November 2024, he witnessed one of SpaceX’s launches and saw one of the rocket boosters fall into the Gulf of Mexico. That time, Ibarra says people arrived in at least three helicopters and more than 10 boats just a few hours later to clean up. CNN reached out to SpaceX to ask if they were responsible for this cleanup. In May, however, there was another launch, with more debris. This time, the activist claims, millions of particles ended up contaminating the area on the Mexican side. Ibarra said that a few days later, the organization collected more than a ton of waste in an area of 500 meters. “In half a kilometer out of the 40 kilometers of shoreline, we already collected one ton (of trash),” added Ibarra. “We are a very small group, it’s impossible to clean everything.” Ibarra said that Conibio Global handed the debris to the Mexican government’s environmental protection agency PROFEPA.