Beach Rescue Project setting beach clean records in the Olympic year

SAS was joined by adventurer, environmentalist and TV presenter Ben Fogle for the 5th annual Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project. An amazing 1,455 beach clean volunteers took part in the initiative at 14 beautiful beaches, rivers and canals nationwide, removing 3,827kgs of marine litter from our precious coastline.

This year’s SAS Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project has been the most varied yet, visiting 14 locations across the country between April and August, from stunning beaches like Perranporth in Cornwall and Elie Bay in Fife to a central Birmingham canal clean and the River Thames in London.

We are also proud to announce a new (unofficial) UK beach clean record for the number of beach clean volunteers. 257 volunteers attended the SAS Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue event in Brighton in what SAS believes to be the single biggest show of volunteer hands at a single UK beach clean (514 of them to be precise!).

The shocking haul of 1.4 tonnes of marine litter removed at Perranporth was also SAS’s biggest recorded weight of debris collected at a single beach clean.

Alongside the staggering amounts of everyday marine litter items removed, volunteers also discovered a host of weird, wonderful and, at times, troubling items, including a life size fluffy mallard at Falmouth, a toilet seat at Elie Bay and a the grip of a sawn off shotgun.

SAS would also like to thank the British Waterways team in Birmingham and Thames 21 for their expertise and guidance for the London, Thames River clean.