Each September, the Marine Conservation Society UK (MCSUK) coordinates ‘The Great British Beach Clean.’
Thousands all over the country take part in cleaning the beaches of litter. It cleans up British beaches, informs the litter data that drives the society’s conservation work. It also helps protect wildlife and the environment and informs the international coastal clean up too.
This year the clean-up will take place from Friday 17 to Sunday 26 September.
The society asks those taking part to run their own litter survey by recording the items of rubbish they find across 100m of the beach.
The clean-up provides short-term benefits of cleaning up the beaches, reducing waste, and informing long-term conservation plans and policies such as plastic bag charges and banning microplastics.
Here are some facts the MCSUK revealed about our British beaches.
- 425 litter items are found per 100m of beach survey in 2020’s Great British Beach Clean.
- 30% of beach cleans last year found face masks and PPE
- 55% drop in plastic bags found on UK beaches since the plastic bag charge was introduced
People can attend organised beach cleans or even schedule their own – MSCUK offers many resources and guidance on managing your own beach clean; you can also email them at firstname.lastname@example.org for more assistance.
You can even participate if you don’t live near a beach by picking a park or a street that faces the same litter problem. Are you #beachcleanready?