Marine Litter

Marine litter is made up of abandoned objects that do not occur naturally in the marine and coastal environment i.e. its water surface, water column, seabed, and seashore.

Typical examples of marine litter include household waste; waste from beach users; sewage-related debris; galley and cargo room waste from commercial shipping; nets and fish boxes from fishing vessels; waste from industrial production or distribution and medical waste.

Marine litter can blow around, remain floating on the water surface, drift in the water column, get entangled on shallow, tidal bottoms or sink to the deeper seabed. It can also get caught up around a surfboard leash, a boat propeller or diving kit that can be a right pain!

It is estimated that over 50% of all marine litter is plastics whilst the remainder consist of persistent materials such as polystyrene, rubber, metals and glass. Plastic items include cotton buds, bottles and bottle lids, fishing nets, sweet wrappers, toys, cans, bottle yokes and much more.

Plastic debris can be found littering beaches all across the world's oceans and seas – even on the most far flung and inaccessible of beaches. Unfortunately due to its' versatility the production of plastic is increasing. Plastic is not biodegradable and will degrade slower in the marine environment than on land. A plastic bottle may persist for more than 450 years if left on a beach.

Marine litter impacts on both humans and wildlife.

For wildlife, entanglement is a real issue. This can result in reduced movement, serious injury or death depending on the type of litter involved.

Us humans have to be wary of injury from broken glass, rusting metal or discarded medical waste. We should also consider that water quality is likely to be poor if we find sewage related debris on a beach.

Marine litter strewn all over a beach can also have a detrimental effect on tourism with visitors put off from using it for recreation. It can cost tens of thousands of pounds to remove marine litter from one beach alone over the course of a year so it's in everyone's interest to reduce the problem at its source.

SAS is campaigning on a number of different levels to tackle the torrent of marine litter that washes up and gets deposited on UK beaches every year. Whilst SAS beach cleans can aesthetically remove a litter problem and reinforce key litter messages through public awareness it is longer term campaign initiatives like Return To Offender and No Butts on the Beach that look to help solve litter problems on a wider platform. Additional SAS Sewage and Sickness related campaigns such as Bag It and Bin It are also seeking to reduce the amount of sewage related debris found on UK beaches.

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