Get involved in the Great British Beach Clean this month
A nationwide call has gone out for volunteers to help with the annual Great British Beach Clean (GBCC).
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is holding the event from Friday to Sunday, September 17-26 and asks for people to come forward and lend a helping hand.
The UK’s beaches and seas are a haven for an incredible variety of wildlife, which are put at risk by pollution. Animals can get tangled in plastic packaging, become distressed, or mistake pollution such as plastic bags for food. This often proves fatal to them.
Volunteers taking part will help the charity to gather data which will contribute to a global database as part of the International Coastal Cleanup.
For those not able to get to the coast, there’s still plenty of ways to take part. The Source to Sea Litter Quest is an inland version of the charity’s survey form, highlighting some of the most common litter items found on the coast. To get involved, individuals can use the survey form and see if they can spot the litter items in their local area. For more information on taking part inland, visit the charity’s website: www.mcsuk.org/what-you-can-do/join-a-beach-clean/source-to-sea-litter-quest/
Key stats and facts:
- At last year’s GBBC, volunteers collected 151,422 litter items, filling 685 bin bags with 3,132kg of rubbish.
- PPE litter including face masks and gloves was found on nearly 30 per cent of beaches cleaned by the charity’s volunteers across the week of the Great British Beach Clean 2020.
- Plastic and polystyrene pieces (0-50cm in size) were the most common litter item at last year’s Great British Beach Clean, with an average of 167 pieces found for every 100 metres of beach cleared and surveyed.
- At last year’s Great British Beach Clean, volunteers found an average of 425 items of litter for every 100 metres of UK beach cleaned.
- Since the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge in Wales in 2011, and across the rest of the UK since, the Marine Conservation Society reports a 55 per cent drop in the single-use bags found on beaches across the UK.
Lizzie Prior, MCS beachwatch officer, said: “The Great British Beach Clean is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference. Not only do volunteers help keep the UK’s beaches beautiful and litter-free, they collect vital data on what’s polluting our environment.
"We’ve used data collected in the past to campaign for carrier bag charges and single-use plastic bans, all of which have led to a reduction in litter on our beaches. So why not get outside, join us on a beach clean and make a difference?”
To sign up for a beach clean, or set up your own, simply visit the MCS website: www.mcsuk.org/what-you-can-do/join-a-beach-clean/great-british-beach-clean-events/
Related article:
Tangled Dunnet gannets highlight plastic pollution problem in our seas