beachwatch big weekend 2012 · 2017. 9. 14. · what are the strangest things you found whilst on a...

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

Beachwatch Big Weekend 2012

Results of the UK’s biggest beach clean and survey

Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch2

So where does all this rubbish come from?

When? 14th – 17th September 2012

The MCS Beachwatch Big Weekend is the only national beach litter clean up and survey of its kind in the UK, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands

Almost 3,500 volunteers from all walks of life and from all over the country scrubbed up the coastline

Countrywide, with your help, we cleaned almost 240 beaches

Over 90km of the UK’s coastline was cleaned up

In total 181,978 items of litter were collected, that’s a whopping 2,007 items for every kilometre surveyed

Over the weekend we filled nearly 1,800 bin bags

The Big Weekend 2012 facts

Why?

Who?

Where?

How far?

How much?

Loads of bags?

Beachwatch - www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch 3

Public 40.4%

So where does all this rubbish come from?

The stuff we drop or leave behind on a trip to the beach or bits carried there by winds and rivers

Non-sourced 36.3%This is the weird, small or damaged bits we find that we can’t identify what they are or where they come from

Fishing 13.9%Fishing line, nets, rope, weights, buoys. If

it helps you catch fish, we’ve found it

Sewage Related Debris (SRD)

Stuff we stick down the loo but that should go in a proper bin – cotton bud sticks, tampons, condoms and the like

Shipping 3.9%Rubbish overboard!

Items dropped or lost from ships

Fly Tipped 0.7%Things illegally disposed of like furniture, pottery and ceramics

Medical 0.2%Inhalers, plasters, syringes…anything medical really

4.5%

The Big Weekend 2012 facts


The Big Weekend around the UKIn 2012 you found a whole bunch of weird stuff!E

arp

lugs

Hig

h h

eeled

shoeFren

ch breathalyser test

Toil

et b

rush head

It’s like Bargain Hunt on the beach!

Clothes horse

Indian fancy dress outfit

Lawnmower grass collecting bag

A wonder woman fridge magnet

Vampire teeth

Fri

dge

. . .yes, a

fridge!


The Big Weekend around the UKIn 2012 you found a whole bunch of weird stuff!

It’s like Bargain Hunt on the beach!

Clothes horse

Indian fancy dress outfit

Lawnmower grass collecting bag

A wonder woman fridge magnet

Vampire teeth The

Knap

© D

avid

Ste

phen

s

Ogm

ore

© C

atal

ena

Ang

ele

Volu

ntee

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Nig

el F

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Channel Islands

England

Wales

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Number of volunteers

2,164

499

138

11,308

6,001

20,951

23,362120,356

Items of litter collected

408

157


For the second year in a row a plastic plague on our shores has been revealed. And, despite 2012 being the wettest summer on record, plenty of people still managed to drop crisps and sweet wrappers on their trip to the beach.

One continuing piece of good news is that since we asked people to stop using their loos as bins and putting cotton buds, condoms and panty liners down the pan, this so-called sewage related debris has dropped out of the top 10!

The top ten litter items lurking on your beach

Items/km

38,943

12,178

10,545

9,776

7,934

7,000

6,136

6,006

5,541

5,404

429.5

134.3

116.3

107.8

87.5

77.2

67.7

66.2

61.1

59.6

1

2

3

4

5

6789

10

No. CollectedPlastic pieces

Crisp / sweet / lolly wrappers

String and cord < 1 cm

Caps and lids

Polystyrene pieces < 50cm

Plastic drinks bottles

Fishing net and net pieces < 50cm

Cigarette stubs

Glass pieces

Fishing line (anglers)

Litter Item

Beachwatch Big Weekend - taking the vital signs of your beaches

© A

lison

Con

way

© S

umm

it Ph

otog

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y


The top ten litter items lurking on your beach

Items/km

Beachwatch Big Weekend - taking the vital signs of your beaches

19941995

19961997

19981999

20002001

20022003

20042005

20062007

20082009

20102011

2012

1,500

1,000

2,500

2,000

Litt

er it

ems

/ km

Rubbish is dropped in a heartbeat…

...but its legacy can last a lifetime and longer

As we approach the 20th anniversary of Beachwatch, it’s rather depressing to see that litter on our beaches is continuing to rise.

However, as we continue to embrace the concept of a throwaway society – despite the best efforts of many conservation organisations, like MCS, to change this –

it’s no surprise that plastic dominates the litter we find.

Most worryingly is that in 2012, the number of litter items per kilometre was the fourth highest in the history of the Beachwatch project – the highest in fact since 2008. That’s a trend we don’t want to see continue.

Sout

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ale

© K

eep

Wal

es T

idy


Lou Luddington at Newgale

My beach clean at Newgale beach, Pembrokeshire was a great success. I teamed up with Keep Wales Tidy as part of Tidy Wales Week to muster a crowd of 52 keen volunteers who braved showers and strong, blustery winds to collect 10 bags of litter from the beach.

This is a new beach cleaned by MCS and the amount of plastic collected and the enthusiasm of the volunteers showed that it is a very worthy cause.

Tony Child on the Thanet Coast

It’s great that people can join in with this national MCS campaign and help to ‘do their bit’ at keeping our beaches clean and input into this important national database to show the progress on the fight against beach litter. The fine weather in Kent helped us to survey the beaches in record time, and helped boost the morale of the volunteers at work!

This year, we tried out the ‘bag hoops’ for the first time - bought and donated by local firm, Cummins.

Big Weekend reflections - busy volunteers, beaches and bagsPe

gwel

l Bay

© T

ony

Child

Bawdsey ©

Lynn Allen

New

gale

© L

ou L

uddi

ngto

n

Beachwatch volunteer profile

Lynn Allen at the Landmark, Bawdsey

One of the items found was a stiletto heel, the comment was...

If someone goes to the beach in such shoes, they deserve to break them! Seriously though what better way to spend a beautiful sunny morning, than on a lovely and remote beach, enjoying the company of other like-minded people, doing something positive to help the environment. How fantastic to do something local – literally on the doorstep – whilst being part of something global and making a difference to such a precious habitat.


Big Weekend reflections - busy volunteers, beaches and bags Beachwatch volunteer profile

Why did you get involved with Beachwatch? To raise awareness of the problems litter poses to wildlife, the dangers of plastic to ecosystems and the fear that alien species arrive in our waters attached to plastic bits.

What makes it so worthwhile? Meeting other people who care about the same issues and working with them to make a difference. The feeling you get after you’ve cleaned a beach and recorded all the litter is very satisfying. With Beachwatch you’re contributing to protecting something much bigger than just your local beach.

What are the strangest things you found whilst on a beach clean?

A set of fairy lights, a jar of pickled gerkins, shopping trolleys, a stuffed life-size donkey, a smoke grenade, a car bumper, a caravan portaloo!

Do you see more litter now than when you first started? Litter levels really fluctuate depending on the weather so you might not notice an increasing amount clean after clean. However, even if the same amount of litter is being dumped each year, it takes years to decompose so there has to be an ever increasing amount of litter in the ocean.

Name: Amanda Wilson

Age: 23

Lives: Tayside, Scotland/

Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland

Works as: PhD Researcher

Beachwatch History:

Organiser at 11 different beaches in Northern Ireland

and St Andrews, Scotland.

Organised over 40 beach cleans and facilitated 300

people hours of volunteering


Beachwatch volunteer profile

In 2012 our friends at the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) took Beachwatch underwater!

Divers up and down the country brought up all manner of rubbish that was littering the seabed.

The strangest

things found under the waves were a 1960’s

milk bottle, a ceramic marmalade jar from the 1860’s and an oil drum

turned into a BBQ!

The largest item was a

yacht’s mast!

98dives took place at...

sites

67

BSAC clubs got involved

69 149bags of rubbish were brought to

the surface...

885kg

weighing

4,618A mind boggling

pieces of litter were collected

volunteers and divers got into

their gear

358

Diving for rubbish around the UK! A passion for plastic

Left

/Rig

ht: C

anad

a W

ater

© B

erm

onds

ey B

SAC


Diving for rubbish around the UK!

The world’s love affair with this indestructible miracle material has left our oceans full of the stuff.

Over 63% of all litter recorded during Beachwatch Big Weekend was plastic! That’s a 3% increase on 2011.

Bake

lite

radi

o ©

Rob

ert N

eild

, Fle

ece

mat

eria

l © H

elen

e Ju

tras

1862

1907

1939

1869 1920 1954 2012

Alexander Parkes creates the first ever man-made plastic – it’s called Parkesine.

Celluloid is created and is used to make billiard balls as it’s cheaper than ivory!

Bakelite makes an appearance – totally man-made, totally synthetic. Jewellery, clock and radio housings were all soon made of Bakelite.

PVC is created and is used in place of natural rubber which was getting pricey.

Nylon is invented by DuPont and women go wild!

Styrofoam makes an appearance and changes the face of packaging.

1982Fleece is invented – it’s a clothing phenomenon.

Everywhere you look there’s plastic: TV controls, handles, bits of your car, kitchen utensils, bath, shower tray, DVD, medical inhaler, computer mouse, light switches, buttons... the list goes on.

Here’s how it started:

A passion for plastic

Sout

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ale

plas

tics

© K

eep

Wal

es T

idy


Released into the sky... dropped on the beach

MCS Sea Champion Emily Smith decided to go plastic free for Lent in an effort to highlight just how much we depend on the stuff, and to encourage people to think twice about single-use products.

Emily challenged herself to avoid pre-made meals, last minute supermarket shops, eating and drinking on the go, and shopped at local independent stores around the Bristol area where she lives.

As part of the challenge of living without plastics, multi-use items such as storage boxes and a toothbrush were allowed but anything packaged or wrapped in plastic wasn’t. Emily put all her shampoos and cosmetics to one side and bought lots of naked, natural products - shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and toothpaste - in bar form!

Emily started having a doorstep delivery of milk to avoid the plastic containers!

To reduce our use of plastics, we need to shop locally, reduce the convenience and go back to basics. I want to make this challenge a way of life and I hope others will consider it too - Emily Smith

Plastic - could you live without it?

Phot

os ©

Em

ily S

mith


Released into the sky... dropped on the beach

More and more organisations and individuals are, without knowing it, putting marine creatures at risk.

They’re choosing to hold balloon and lantern releases on land. All very lovely, but once they’ve drifted over the horizon and cooled down or the helium starts to escape from them, many drift down into the sea and end up in the gullets of seabirds, turtles and dolphins who mistake them for food.

Now MCS has produced a brand new guide to help people understand the dangers of releases. The ‘Don’t Let Go’ downloadable action pack suggests alternatives to letting go and gives tips on how to go about stopping a planned balloon or lantern release in their local area.

Protecting our seas, shores and wildlife

Registered Charity No (England and Wales): 1004005

Registered Charity No (Scotland): SC037480

Don’t Let Gobooklet

Coun

ting

coot

s bl

og

Help stop releases now! www.mcsuk.org/url/dontletgo

© S

imon

Pai

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© C

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tine

McG

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ess

Plastic - could you live without it?

Lant

ern

rele

ase

© S

tuar

t Ask

ew

© K

Reg

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Did you know that the scrub, peel or face mask you may have used to do a bit of intense exfoliation could have contained tiny plastic particles?

Giving your complexion a bit of intense therapy may do it some good but it’s giving our oceans anything but a make-over.

MCS and the North Sea Foundation are asking manufacturers of skin care products to replace plastic microbeads with natural alternatives like anise seeds, sand, salt or coconut.

When you rinse off your scrub it goes down the drain and the next stop is the sea where it contributes to the ‘plastic soup’ problem.

Is your face scrub masking a plastic secret? Help us Break the Bag Habit!

Help get microbeads out of cosmetic products now! www.mcsuk.org - Follow the link to a petition to get an EU ban on microplastics in consumer products

Mic

ro-b

ead

pro

duct

s ©

Rya

n To

wnl

ey


Is your face scrub masking a plastic secret? Help us Break the Bag Habit!

On April 8th 2013, Northern Ireland became the second home nation to introduce a levy on single use carrier bags. In October 2011 a similar charge had been introduced in Wales, where the scheme has proved immensely popular, with over 70% of consumers supporting it resulting in an estimated fall in single-use bags issued of between 70-96 per cent.

In Scotland, following a public consultation, it’s expected a similar charge will be introduced after the Scottish Government found there were no reasonable alternatives to the scheme.

MCS is part of the Break the Bag Habit Coalition, a group of NGOs campaigning for the same in England, where not even a consultation is on the horizon.

David Cameron is failing in his pledge to take action on this issue - something he first promised in 2010.

Northern Ireland

Wales

Scotland

England

10/10

10/10

6/10

0/10

Help get microbeads out of cosmetic products now! www.mcsuk.org - Follow the link to a petition to get an EU ban on microplastics in consumer products

must do better!

Take action now! www.mcsuk.org/url/breakthebaghabit

Put pressure on Westminster by writing to your MP and/or the media. You can download a letter from our website.

Phot

os ©

Stu

art A

skew


How you can help

245-

2013

Join an MCS beach clean

There are events all through the year!

Beachwatch Big Weekend

20th-23rd September 2013

Find out more and register for all events at:

www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch

Become a member

Join MCS from as little as £2.75 a month and help

us take action to stop litter destroying the UK’s beaches.

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: Overross House, Ross Park, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7US

www.mcsuk.orgRegistered Charity No (England and Wales): 1004005 Registered Charity No (Scotland): SC037480 Company Limited by Guarantee Number: 2550966

Front cover photo - Thanet Coast 2012 © Tony Child

beachwatch big weekend 2012 · 2017. 9. 14. · what are the strangest things you found whilst on a...

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