Last Friday, as part of the Marine Conservation’s Great British Beach Clean (20th-23rd September) Planet Aware ran a beach clean and survey at Grange Chine Beach.
Volunteers collected 8kgs of litter in the 100m survey area representing 706 items of litter. The main items making up the litter on this beach were bits of fishing net and rope and unidentifiable pieces of plastic between 2.5cm and 5cm.
Plastic caps and wrappers were also in the top 5 items found. After surveying the group went on to clean further along the beach and collected another 16kg of litter making a collection of 21 kg of litter in total.
Data used to influence government and corporate policy
Sarah Marshall from Planet Aware said,
“We would like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who helped pick up and record all the litter it was great that even people on holiday at Grange Farm Camping came along to help.
“We enjoyed a sunny morning sharing ideas on how to reduce the amount of waste we produce and resources we use whilst helping collect useful data on Marine litter.
“This data will be used to influence government and corporate policy. For example data helped inform the plastic bag charge which cut the number of plastic bags we find on beach surveys.”
Must get better at using less and reusing or recycling
She added,
“The Isle of Wight waste dept arranged collection of the rubbish on the day and we separated the cleaner plastic bottles for recycling.
“We are fortunate to have a good waste collection service in this country, but we must get better at using less and reusing or recycling what we do use.”
Binnel Bay beach clean
Planet Aware also teamed up with See Bin Sea Change Portsmouth on the Saturday 21st September to clean Binnel Bay, collecting 15.5kg of litter.
Finds included lots of fishing rope and net as well as unusual finds such as flip flops, a cute rubber duck and Otrivin bottles.
Otrivin bottles are still washing up following the loss of a container at sea earlier this year and their distribution is being mapped by Richard Thompson at Plymouth University.
Dangers of balloon litter
Commenting further on the litter types found, Planet Aware said,
“We are still finding helium balloons and parts of balloons especially those celebrating birthdays and are asking people to please keep balloons indoors, especially on windy days.
“Once in the marine environment balloons pose a threat to marine life through ingestion or entanglement. There are lots of goods ways to replace using balloons on the MCS Website.”
Become an MCS survey leader
Parkdean Resorts also supported the MCS surveys on the Island running three events and Planet Aware are keen to hear from anyone who would like to become an MCS survey leader for next year, the 27th year of the survey.
You can contact Planet Aware via their Website or the Marine Conservation Website for more details
Article shared by Sarah on behalf of Plastic Aware. Ed
