beachwatch big weekend 2013fi l t h - wh at’s rea ly u ki ng o your beach 0 y ea r so f l it em y...

Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch 1Working towards clean seas and beaches

Beachwatch Big Weekend 2013

Results of the UK annual beach clean and survey

Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch2 Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch 3

20th - 23rd September 2013

MCS coordinates the Beachwatch Big Weekend - it’s the biggest national beach litter clean up and survey of its kind in the UK including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands

4,083 volunteers of all ages and from all over the country cleaned up the coastline

All over the place! We cleaned 254 beaches across all parts of the UK

Our volunteers cleaned an impressive 96.7 km of coastline

A whopping 223,405 bits of litter were collected, which equates to 2,309 items found in every kilometre cleaned!

Volunteers filled a back-breaking 1,970 bags full of beach litter during the Big Weekend

Big Weekend 2013 - the big facts

When?

Why?

Who?

Where?

How far?

How much?

Bags of bags?

So where does all this rubbish come from?

This is all the stuff littered routinely by people - we drop it intentionally, leave it behind

accidentally, or it arrives on the beach carried on the

wind or in rivers.

39.4%

Public

38.1%

Non-sourced

All the bits and bobs that we can’t really identify and

so don’t know where it comes from - generally small things or

damaged stuff.

Includes commercial and recreational fishing stuff - line,

nets, weights, floats.

12.6%

Fishing

This is all the stuff that gets dropped, lost or thrown

overboard - from small craft to massive cargo ships.

4.5%

Shipping

4.3%

Sewage RelatedDebris

0.9%

Fly Tipped

People use some beaches like the local tip - fly-tipping things like furniture, pottery and ceramics.

0.2%

Medical

Inhalers, plasters, syringes - you know the sort of stuff!

The really nasty stuff - bits we put down the loo but shouldn’t - cotton

bud sticks, tampons, nappies etc.


Channel Islands

England

Wales

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Number of volunteers

2,585

828

284

5,763

5,209

36,379

30,954145,100

Items of litter collected

271115

Around the UK for Beachwatch Big Weekend2013 - a vintage year for the weird and wonderful

Small teddy bear

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* Plastic bird feet

* Brass candlestick

* A birdcage

* French bullet-proof vest

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Half a canoe

Bath plug

Unopene

d pack of bacon

Dentures

* Xmas bauble

* Catseye

* Half a TV


It’s a hat trick of appearances for plastic pieces in the number one position in our chart of the Top Ten litter items found on our beaches.

Despite a warm and dry summer in 2013, people appeared to drop fewer crisp, sweet and lolly wrappers as that category slipped from 2 to 4, swapping places with caps and lids - whilst plastic drinks bottles dropped from 6 to 9.

There’s continued good news though for Sewage Related Debris (SRD) - there’s still less of it about after we asked people, in 2011, to stop flushing things down the loo that should go in the bin.

Rather worryingly, glass is on the move... up to 6 from 9 whilst fishing line from anglers drops out of the Top 10.

The MCS Top Ten of Filth - what’s really lurking on your beach 20 years of litter misery on our beaches

The 2013 Beachwatch Big Weekend was the 20th anniversary event - so it’s a bit depressing that the 2013 clean up revealed beach litter at its highest levels for two decades.

Over two decades - 59,493 volunteers have taken part in Beachwatch Big Weekend. Thanks to each and every one of you!

Over two decades - 5,528,399 pieces of litter have been removed from our beaches.

Over two decades - 3,080 km of coastline have been cleaned.

Apart from one or two dips, the trend over 20 years is that beach litter is still very much on the rise.

MCS hopes that an event we have organised for June 2014 will start to come up with solid solutions to the issue that can be taken forward.

Read more about the new Marine Litter Action Network - on page 11.

Items/km

48,813

14,376

12,813

12,422

11,040

8,167

8,008

7,514

7,395

5,879

504.6

148.6

132.4

128.4

114.1

84.4

82.8

77.7

76.4

60.8

1

2

3

4

5

6789

10

No. CollectedPlastic pieces

Caps and lids

Polystyrene pieces < 50 cm

Crisp/sweet/lolly wrappers

String and cord < 1 cm

Glass pieces

Cigarette stubs

Fishing net and net pieces < 50 cm

Plastic drinks bottles

Rope diameter > 1 cm

Litter Item©

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Fan

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19941995

19961997

19981999

20002001

20022003

20042005

20062007

20082009

20102011

2012

1,500

1,000

2,500

2,000

Litt

er it

ems

/ km

2013

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Anna Keirle at Sand Bay

I have a T-shirt that says, ‘Any day at the beach is a good day’. Combine that with a sociable and rewarding activity like an MCS Beach clean and it’s instant feel good stuff.

Collecting litter is such a simple task with a great measurable result. Seeing that the majority of the items we found were disposable (cotton buds, drinks cartons etc) has caused me to be more mindful of my own rubbish footprint.”

Dave Fincham at Orfordness

The logistics on the Ness were rather problematic since we are unable to drive all the way along the spit to Aldeburgh, but we did get the survey done, and quite a bit cleaned otherwise with our 14 volunteers. The highlight find of the day was probably a French bullet-proof vest (with the instruction “Ne pas laver” still clear on the back).”

Lindsay Lewis at Sizewell

We completed the official 100 metre survey by approx 11.45am and weighed the bags in at 8.25 kilos. After a fish and chip lunch at the Beach Café (provided by our Company, Magnox Ltd !), we carried on and cleaned another 100 metres of beach and then the main car park, finishing with a grand total of 35.25 kilos of waste.”

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© Dave Fincham

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Jane Littlewood on Rossall Beach

The Beachwatch Big Weekend was another great event at Rossall Beach, Cleveleys. Just outside Blackpool, we’re on the Fylde Coast which is one of the most challenged areas with regard to the Revised Bathing Water Directive. 111 volunteers of all ages turned out to enjoy a thankfully dry afternoon, picking up 188kgs of rubbish in 68 sacks.

Rossall Beach Residents and Community Group clean beaches every four weeks, looking after this stretch of shingle beach throughout the year, so it was great to

get the public along to join in and see some of our Rossall Beach Buddies Roadshow. We’re hoping that showing people what the problem is will encourage them to make small changes in their own behaviour both at home and when they are at the beach. Well done everyone.”

Big Weekend Reflections

Paul Greaves at Bawdsey

Our Beachwatch was a huge success and went really well, I have to say the group of students we have this year are really conscientious and enjoyed doing this. I may actually ask if they would like to do it monthly - a couple of girls have said they want to do this!! I hope the other ones were as successful as ours, the beach was the cleanest I have seen for a while, a lot of small plastic pieces and netting but nothing big apart from an unopened can of John Smiths beer which luckily a member of staff found before the students.”

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What you tell us about your Beachwatch experience

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© Tim Fanshawe

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In the 20 years that Beachwatch has been surveying and cleaning beaches we’ve built up a pretty clear picture of where the rubbish that ends up on beaches comes from. But, knowing where it comes from doesn’t stopping it getting there in the first place. We’ve got the information, now we need to act on it.

MCS says urgent steps must be taken to reverse the rising tide of beach litter. During June it will be launching its Marine Litter Action Network.

Marine Litter Action Network meetings and workshops will take place between June 2014 and June 2015. This is no talking shop – we will have a year to make a difference and will be presenting the Government with our plans, which we will be asking them to implement as part of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which gives the Government certain objectives it has to meet.

Check the MCS website for progress - www.mcsuk.org

In the 20th anniversary year of Beachwatch – it’s time to stop blaming and begin working together to take action.

Beachwatch organiser profile

During Beachwatch Big Weekend David decided to do a

clean everyday between 20th - 23rd September.

In just four days he collected six bags of rubbish

containing 978 items of litter, weighing a total of 21kg.

In fact, since becoming a Beachwatch organiser, David

has done more than his fair share of cleans…building up

a clear picture of the situation on Par Sands:

In 16 weeks (from 20th September - 9th January) David

has completed an astonishing 77 surveys, he’s collected

113 bags of rubbish weighing 615 kg and has removed

30,264 items of litter from the beach.

Washed up David has collected some very strange items:

Childs bracelet, a dog whistle, a horse’s hoof protector, an

Asda token, a screwdriver, cable holder, Lego from 1996, a

lobster tag and a pregnancy test kit, to name just a few.

Name: David Smethurst

Beachwatch History:

David cleans Par Sands in

Cornwall . He’s been a volunteer

there for five years, but in

September became an organiser.

David says: “To me cleaning the beach means making

a difference however small in protecting the marine

environment from the plastic pollution generated by

man - the only animal on the planet who delights in

destroying everything in the environment”

A year to make a difference


Confusion as a rubbish public consultation complicates the issue

Last September it was announced that a single use carrier bag charge of 5p would be introduced in England in 2015.

MCS was delighted as it came after years of lobbying, and more recently, as part of the Break the Bag Habit Campaign group and meant England would finally come into line with Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

However, looking at the detail it became clear that the English system is likely to be very different and less inclusive than those in Wales and Northern Ireland. The ‘consultation’ in 2013 highlighted this.

Exempt in England? Paper bags and biodegradable bags - they’re included in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The whole point of a charge is to change behaviour and reduce bag use. Therefore, replacing one single use item with another is just not the way to go.

Exempt in England? Organisations with fewer than 250 employees.

A headache for customers who won’t recognize what kind of business it is they are shopping in. A level playing field, including all retailers, would be much simpler and more efficient. Smaller businesses have already voiced their concern that they don’t want to be excluded.

Sign up to our regular enews and keep up to date with further developments on the plastic bag charge.

register at www.mcsuk.org

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What’s a nurdle? Nurdles are plastic pellets, about the size of a lentil, that are the raw material used to make nearly all plastic objects.

The problem with nurdles Nurdles get into our seas through accidental spillage and mishandling by industry. Once in our oceans they are often mistaken for food by animals like seabirds, fish and crustaceans.

The Great Nurdle Hunt has been set up by a group of local residents around the coast of the Forth in Scotland concerned about the continuing presence of plastic pellets and other marine litter around the Forth.

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Will England’s carrier bag charge do the job?

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Be a nurd(le) hunter!

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Reporting nurdles is helping to build up evidence to show the local plastics industry the extent of the nurdle pollution.

Continue to report your sightings via the Beachwatch Survey - each survey asks you to identify if plastic pellets or nurdles are present on your beach. www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch


There’s an App for that

An international version of the ‘Beat the Microbead’ App has been launched, which was previously only available to Dutch consumers.

The App works by scanning the barcode of cosmetic products and telling the shopper whether or not the product contains plastic microbeads. How cool is that?

Products are divided into the categories:

Red - the product contains microbeads.

Orange - the product contains microbeads but the manufacturer has pledged to stop using microbeads in the near future.

Green - the product does not contain microbeads.

Are there microplastics in your scrub?

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Download the App www.beatthemicrobead.org

If you want to check products in a more traditional way then plastics can appear as any of these on the ingredients list:

Polyethylene / Polythene (PE)

Polypropylene (PP)

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)

Nylon

If you find microbeads in a product that is not on the App, let us know via our website: www.mcsuk.org/forms/plastics

A big THANK YOU from MCS to 20 years

of fantastic Beachwatch volunteers!

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Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch

Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch16

How you can help

373-

2014

Join an MCS beach clean

There are events all through the year including

Big Beach Clean-up - 24th to 30th April 2014!

Beachwatch Big Weekend

19th to 22nd September 2014

Find out more and register for all events at:

www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch

Support MCS

Become a member or give a cash donation and

help us take action to stop litter destroying

the UK’s amazing seas, shores and wildlife.

Join us at: www.mcsuk.org/membership

Tell a friend

Spread the word about MCS and encourage your

friends to do something to make a difference.

Join our online community

Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/mcsuk

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/mcsuk

Tel: 01989 566017 Email: [email protected] Address: Marine Conservation Society, Overross House, Ross Park, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 7US

www.mcsuk.orgRegistered Charity No (England and Wales): 1004005Registered Charity No (Scotland): SC037480Company Limited by Guarantee Number: 2550966

Front cover photo - Sand Bay © Tim Fanshawe

beachwatch big weekend 2013fi l t h - wh at’s rea ly u ki ng o your beach 0 y ea r so f l it em y...

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