The Marine Conservation Society’s annual Great British Beach Clean revealed some weird (and not so wonderful) finds on our beaches.

Sponsored by Cully and Sully Soup, from the 20 – 29 September the Great British Beach Clean saw 5,845 volunteers head out to beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. They collected a staggering 6,048 kilograms of litter – the equivalent weight of 15 adult male polar bears – during the annual event. Volunteers for the Marine Conservation Society recorded each of the near quarter of a million (249,823) pieces of rubbish on the charity’s survey, which builds a picture of what litter items pollute our seas. The charity then uses this information to inform policy makers.

The membership charity will reveal results in its annual State of Our Beaches report in March 2025, reporting on trends and the most frequently found litter items from the last year.

Image: Richard Newell

Clare Trotman, Beachwatch Officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “Thanks to thousands of volunteers, we’ll be able to inform policy makers what kind of litter is washing up on our beaches. Earlier this year we revealed that there has been an 80 per cent drop in carrier bags washing up on beaches since the charges were introduced – and that’s exactly why we do what we do. We know these kinds of policies work to reduce litter and protect marine life, but we need data to show what’s ending up in our seas. Along the way, we do find some interesting pieces of litter! One that keeps puzzling me is how a full-size traffic barricade ended up on a beach in Anglesey. We’ll never know!”

Odd litter items photographed at the Great British Beach Clean this year included a manikin’s leg, toy soldiers, a shopping basket, multiple hair extensions on the same beach and a vintage Drifter bar wrapper. Other weird items that were recorded on survey forms by volunteers included an exhaust pipe, half a bed sheet, a piece of plastic Christmas tree, clay pigeons, a rusty fridge, a toilet seat and a broomstick.

Cullen Allen, founder of Cully and Sully Soup, said: “The strangest thing I found during this year’s Great British Beach Clean was the dog poo bags. People went to all the effort to use a bag and then left the bag on the beach which definitely was not a pleasant find. A huge thanks to all the great volunteers that keep collecting data on beach litter items so that the Marine Conservation Society can keep working for cleaner and healthier seas.”

Marine litter is one of the biggest threats to our seas. The 2023 State of Our Beaches report showed that nine of the top ten litter items were made of plastic. Plastic breaks down over time into microplastics and threatening marine life which can ingest or become entangled in them. The Marine Conservation Society is urging the UK Government to move faster on its policies to cut down plastic waste and prevent items from reaching our seas.

The Marine Conservation Society’s volunteers run beach cleans year-round. To find out more visit:www.mcsuk.org/what-you-can-do/join-a-beach-clean

 

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