I recently spent a great morning doing a Beach Clean here in Dorset. They are such a satisfying thing to do although they do make you realise what a state our planet is in. When it comes to helping the environment, a beach clean is a great way to start - after all, there's lots of plastic that can be used to make recycled products!
I responded to a beach cleaning advert on Facebook asking for volunteers and chose the date and beach I could get to. The one I chose was being organised by Clean Jurassic Coast but actually you don't need to wait for an organised event you can be an eco friendly warrior simply by doing your bit every time you're down the beach. Just bear in mind your own personal safety and watch out for sharps, needles, broken bottles or dog poo, but pretty much everything else you can probably collect up quite safely.
We met on a drizzly Sunday morning in the Ringstead Car Park as per the instructions. They even arranged free parking for the volunteers involved which was a nice bonus. There was a mini safety briefing and the plan was to start down the far end of the bay and work our way back towards the car park. That way you are only carrying the rubbish in one direction and not walking it to the end of the beach and then back again. I must say it is so stunning you forget the fact that you're there litter picking and simply enjoy how lucky we are to live here. Walking down the beach to the start point I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't look too bad. The organisers had already done a few days in that area following a recent storm which always apparently washes up a lot of extra rubbish. To my surprise there was still plenty for us to remove and once you start looking you see so much more.
So we simply picked the area we wanted to clear of rubbish and wandered around collecting anything that wasn't a natural product. The black sack below shows my personal haul, sadly quite a lot in just an hour and a half. The group photos show the extent of rubbish that we all managed to find and clear from the coast. This was then sorted into anything recyclable, bits that could be used by local artists or the rest for landfill waste. I was really shocked by how much we retrieved, sad but satisfying.
Well done to Clean Jurassic Coast and Litter Free Dorset for arranging these recent beach cleans, providing the first aiders, equipment, rubbish sorting and collection after the event and social media support. Remember you don't need to wait for an organised event if you see it and it shouldn't be there collect it and put it in the bin, it creates a better Dorset and helping to save our planet for us all to enjoy.
