Declining biodiversity of marine ecosystems is impairing the functionality of seas and shore and their capability to provide ecological services and recover from perturbations due to human pressure. The European Union issued the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), providing criteria and methods to analyse the dominant pressures on marine and coastal environments. Anthropogenic litter is among the main sources of impact on coastal habitats. On the other hand, sand-dwelling beetles are among the most sensitive taxa to habitat disturbance. Applying MSFD criteria and metrics for community analyses, we studied the impact of anthropogenic litter on sand-dwelling beetle, focusing our attention on beach litter traps (BLTs): discarded containers that act as traps. Our aims were to identify and quantify period, beach zone and beetle taxa affected by entrapment effect. Three monthly surveys were carried out along the Ionian coast (Southern Italy) over the spring season, recording material, shape and position of buried and not buried BLTs along dune habitats and identifying entrapped beetle species. The highest density of containers was observed on hind dunes (13 items/100 m2), with glass bottles as the most frequent container (41%), entrapping more than 50% of individuals. Buried and not buried BLTs acted as traps, with no difference in trapping frequency regarding their material type and shape. A total of 2811 individuals were analysed, identifying 14 families and 18 species: Anthicus fenestratus (Anthicidae), Scarites buparius (Carabidae) and Pachychila frioli (Tenebrionidae) were the most affected species. The entrapment effect interests a large set of species, from detritivorous to carnivorous and saprophagous beetles, possibly altering the sand-dwelling beetle community. Our results represent a starting point to define and compare the magnitude of entrapment effect on arthropods. Besides, they could be useful to devise proper management strategies to reduce BLT effect on sand beetle community.