Back in September a group from the Edinburgh CRF took part in the Great British Beach Clean (you can read all about it here: blogs.ed.ac.uk/sustainable-wellness)
The Marine Conservation Society have now released the results and they make for some interesting reading. I have picked out a few key facts to share, but if you are interested in reading the whole report you will find it here – https://www.mcsuk.org/news/
Over 10,000 volunteers took part in the Great British Beach Clean, removing 10,833 kg of rubbish across 437 beaches. There was a shift in the type of rubbish being collected this year. Just over 30% of the rubbish collected was litter from the public and around 15% came from fishing and shipping. As more people become aware of the harm caused by single use plastics there has been a reduction in the volume of plastic bags being collected during beach clean ups, however there was a 36% increase in the number of drinks containers collected. These figures will be used as evidence by the Marine Conservation Society to petition governments to commit to a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers. The Scottish Government has already signed up to create a Deposit Return Scheme and plan to implement this from April 2021.
We hope to get involved with more coastal clean ups next year, so if you know of a beach that would benefit from a good clean up or if you would be interested in hearing about our next clean up event then please get in touch at ECRF.Sustainability@ed.ac.uk
If you would like to find out more about the work which the Marine Conservation Society do across the UK or to find out where local beach cleans are happening then you can visit their website https://www.mcsuk.org/
