B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 702; Flight Crew Type 702
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter FOD
General None Reported / Taken
Airport; Procedure
The aircraft was parked at [the] gate. I accomplished the walk around and found an abnormally large amount of debris around the aircraft. Often times; this debris is isolated to the area in front of the right engine; near the forward cargo hold.  Not today.  About 2/3 of it was on the right side of the aircraft from the nose to the tail; while the other 1/3 was directly underneath or on the left side of the aircraft.  [There were] metal items; many rocks; plastic debris.  [A] large rectangular metal piece was located right behind the front right tire. I don't know if it was sharp enough to cut the tire; but it was a safety hazard in my opinion.  Additionally; I came across an abnormal amount of safety wire. It was if maintenance actions were performed on an aircraft at the gate; and the old wire was simply discarded to the ramp.  It is readily apparent that there is no culture of looking for FOD potential on the ramp at EWR. All of this debris was in plain sight. The people on the ramp simply have no understanding of the importance of picking up this debris. My guess is that they have not been educated that this is a significant issue; and that simply picking it up can prevent aircraft damage than can eat away at our profit margin or worse.
B737 First Officer reported a potential FOD problem due to debris often found in the gate area at EWR airport.