SAS’s Annual Spring Beach Clean

Today is the 1st of March and the Met Office has called it the first day of spring. To welcome spring we organised beach cleans over the weekend all around the UK with the help of our SAS reps.

At Porthtowan we had over 80 volunteers collecting over 150 bags with a weight of 220kgs. We had sunshine, surf, rainbows and a great atmosphere. Thanks to Blue for the free hot chocolates and coffees!

The great atmosphere was evident at all the beach cleans over the weekend. The most litter was collected in the Isle of Wight, with Joe and the team taking a massive 630kg of litter off the beach. Amazing and shocking, but that’s a massive amount of litter that’s no longer on the IoW’s beaches. Good work team!

Brighton got hit by bad weather but still 25 hardy volunteers managed to collect 220kg, including a massive bra (someone went home cold lately!)

Scarborough had over 30 people who collected over 600kgs of litter, including 2 syringes. These have NO place on our beaches! Well-done guys and thanks to Steve for safely disposing of the sharps.

At Portreath over 30 volunteers collected over 50kgs of litter and it was great to see the Portreath locals and the Surf Club being so effective, the beach looked a lot better.

Nick Noble and the Saltburn crew of about 60 collected 240 kgs and also raised 30 for SAS. Once again, a massive thanks to Nick for inspiring and mobilising the troops!

Dunbar (East of Edinburgh), Alasdair, Sam and Brian headed the teams tackling 3 beaches and we’ve seen some great shots. They’re still collating the weights and numbers but it looks impressive! Sam at the Coast caf also put on a showing of the new SAS “Protect Our Waves” film that went down a storm. You can get your free copy on the cover of The Surfers Path now.

Lastly Alice and Ross tackled Newgale beach in Pembrokeshire. They had a lovely, albeit windy day with young and old giving up their time to help the beach clean. Lots of small plastic was taken off the beach and over 50 people had a great day! Alice and Ross also showed the SAS “Protect Our Waves” film and had a superb night.

At all the beach cleans the majority of the litter collected was plastic. This plethora of plastics and other litter on our beaches is not only an eyesore, but also a persistent and long-lasting danger to surfers, beach users, recreational water sports enthusiasts, and the wildlife and habitats all around the UK’s coastline. A plastic bottle takes up to 450 years to break down and marine litter is responsible for the death of 100,000 marine mammals and 1,000,000 sea birds each year from ingestion and entanglement.

Thanks to all the SAS reps who did a sterling job organising and directing the beach cleans and a massive thanks to all the volunteers, without you we wouldn’t have taken a fraction of the litter off the beaches, WELL DONE!

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