Marine Conservation Society says there's a 42% increase on beach litter but Caithness beach cleaners query findings
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The results of the annual 2022 Great British Beach Clean show that Scottish shoreline litter has increased by 42 per cent but a Caithness-based eco group questions the veracity of these statistics.
The data collected by Marine Conservation Society (MCS), which runs the volunteer-led event, shows "a staggering 42 per cent increase in litter levels" in comparison to last year’s Great British Beach Clean in Scotland. The MCS says that the main reason behind this increase is not clear, but what stands out is a "serious issue with unsustainable consumption and pollution ending up in the marine environment".
The Society's press release, which came out this week, also says that wet wipes litter has increased by 150 per cent and drinks-related litter was found on 93 per cent of surveyed beaches.
However, Allan Sinclair of Caithness Beach Cleans (CBC) said he has not noticed such a huge upsurge in discarded items around the local coast and disputes some of the MCS findings.
"I have a bit of a problem with the way that MCS derives its data," Allan told the paper. "You have to look at everything found on a 100m stretch of beach and record it against their categories, eg bottles, cigarette butts, cotton bud sticks, pieces of rope etc.
"They make no distinction between a fist-sized knot and the quarter ton of hawser that we recovered from Dunnet this year. I have discussed this with them but to no avail. Another example would be the 10 miles of pallet strapping that you have already covered for us in the paper, that would be recorded as one piece of plastic."
Related article:
10-mile plastic bundle removed from Ackergill shore thanks to beach cleaners
Allan said there has not been a huge increase in discarded items found by the Caithness beach cleaners this year according to the data they collect and publish online.
"Looking at the first six months of the last three years the group have removed the following amounts of plastics:
- 2020 January to July 7.5 tonnes
- 2021 January to July 10.1 tonnes
- 2022 January to July 7.2 tonnes
"Sure we sometimes will come across the occasional scene where someone has changed a baby and left the nappy, wipes and whatever for the next family to encounter but it is by no means a regular occurrence.
"Similarly with water bottles and cans. The worst that I found this year, bad enough for me to tip my bags out and count, were 20 bottles and half-a-dozen cans at Thurso East. The worst we ever found was 400 bottles picked from the tiny beach at Roy Geo in 2019."
Allan says there seems to be a reluctance to accept that "most of the waste is fishing related" and that, while other areas may be different, "well over 95 per cent is found locally by weight".
"Our group was formed as a reaction to the problem that we could see. Our aim is to remove as much plastic as possible before it breaks down into millions of tiny pieces rather than taking surveys. However, we are more than happy to make our data available to MSC or any other interested party."
Allan's graph shows how much plastic that CBC has recovered from the county's coastline by month, year on year.
The MCS says that during its annual coastal cleaning exercise in Scotland 13.51km of beach were cleared and surveyed by over 1200 volunteers, who filled over 400 bags of litter, weighing 1830kg.
"All pollution cleared from beaches protects the ocean and vulnerable wildlife which can ingest or become entangled in litter and debris," states the MCS press release.
The organisation says that its data shows a 42 per cent increase in coastal litter in Scotland and demonstrates an "urgent need to move away from a single-use society". It also pointed out how certain items such as wet wipes have increased by 150 per cent this year compared to 2021. The MCS is calling for the Scottish Government to ban plastic in single-use wet wipes as soon as possible.
The charity says that next year's Deposit Return Scheme can't come soon enough. From August 2023 a 20p deposit will be returned upon recycling of metal drinks cans and glass and plastic bottles. With 31 drinks-related items found on average per 100 metres of Scottish beach surveyed, the Society hopes to see them disappear from beaches as more people are incentivised to recycle them to receive 20p back.
For more information on MCS visit: www.mcsuk.org
