Marine charity The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is seeking volunteers to join its beach clean operation around the UK, with particular focus on the Somerset coastline.
MCS, which works to protect UK seas, shores and wildlife, runs regular litter picks around the UK coastline that culminate in the Great British Beach Clean weekend, this year running from 19 to 22 September.
As such, the charity is urging people around Somerset to volunteer to take part in the ‘nationwide beach clean event’, which includes litter picks at Weston-Super-Mare and Bossington Beach.
It is aiming to have a record number of people to volunteer for beach cleaning duties all around the UK during its Great British Beach Clean weekend.
The campaign is designed to return Britain’s beaches to what MCS Campaigns Manager Tom Bell has called ‘halcyon days’ of the 50s and 60s.
He explained: “Our domestic habits over the last 50 years or so have resulted in dirty beaches. We throw more stuff away than ever. Plastic in the marine environment may take hundreds of years to break down and it washes up or is blown onto beaches in bits from micro pieces to larder chunks. We flush stuff down the loo we shouldn’t, and that ends up in our waterways and then our beaches.
“We want to see people turning out to clean up their favourite or local beach during our Great British Beach Clean weekend – please don’t turn your back on our beaches.”
Across the UK
There are beach clean events in Somerset at: Uphill; Berrow Beach; Bossington Beach; Brean Down South; Kilve Pill; Redcliffe Bay; Sand bay; Weston-super-Mare; and Black Nore but events are also taking place around the whole UK including at:
- Blackhall Rocks, County Durham
- Blackpool Beach, Lancashire
- Clacton-on-Sea, South East
- Summerleaze, Cornwall
- Ballyholme Beach, Northern Ireland
- St Cyrus Sands, Aberdeenshire
- Pembrey Sands, Carmarthenshire
To find out dates and times at individual beaches and to sign up to the Great British Beach Clean in Somerset or elsewhere visit the MCS website or call 01989 567807.
Read about previous MCS appeals.
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