Nearly 100 people attend new style beach clean
To broaden the appeal of beach cleaning, North Devon National Trust rangers, along with the team at Plastic Free Woolacombe, have added a new twist (and dance) to the notion of litter picking.
It gives beachgoers the chance to swap their boogie boards for a boogie beach clean at the popular Woolacombe beach in Devon.
The idea is proving to be popular with an April event welcoming nearly 100 people. That’s triple the number of people who go along to a standard beach clean at the site.
Experts say the organised monthly beach cleaning activities are important as they help make the coastline safer for marine wildlife including seabirds and marine life.
Woolacombe’s three-mile stretch of golden sands are often seen as a haven for surfers and bodyboarders. It’s part of the 780 miles of coastline which are cared for by The National Trust.
‘It’s great to be able to come out and help the local community to keep the beaches clean and how you would like them for yourself,’ says Louise Gavin who volunteered at a recent Silent Disco Beach Clean.
‘It’s important to us to help the local wildlife in any way that we can and work to prevent more plastic from getting into the ocean.’
10,000 visitors a day during summer
The beach and sand dunes welcome upwards of 10,000 people a day during the summer. It’s classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
‘We’ve been running monthly beach cleans at Woolacombe for over a year and uptake can vary widely,’ explains Fraser Goodfellow, North Devon National Trust Ranger.
‘Now, with the addition of North Devon Silent Disco, a mix of people from the local community and holidaymakers of all ages, including families and young people, are coming together in a communal effort to keep the beach clean and healthy.’
‘Nearly half who come along haven’t done a beach clean before and it’s fantastic to see a wider range of people volunteering their time to get stuck in.’
Silent Disco Beach Clean, Woolacombe, Devon. Copyright: National Trust Images / Sophie Bolesworth.
‘We want to say a huge thank you to them all for their hard work, with a constant stream of marine waste and litter arriving across our shores cleaning up our coastline has never been more important.’
Experts say litter has always been a big problem on beaches and in the countryside, as it is hugely damaging to the wildlife and environment.
Unsurprisingly, plastic is the most common material washed ashore at Woolacombe, with a staggering 90% of beach rubbish collected in 2019 being plastic or polystyrene.
Efforts are focused on removing these harmful plastics and ‘nurdles’ which are tiny pellets used by industry to make nearly all our plastic products.
Plastic: Being mistaken for food by seabirds and mammals
Their similarity to fish eggs and small crustaceans means they are often mistaken for food by seabirds and marine animals and enter the food chain.
The scope of the challenge to remove plastic from our beaches and oceans is demonstrated by recent unusual litter pick finds at Woolacombe.
The team’s found a variety of items, including an opened can of coke dating from 2020 which originated from Denmark.
They’ve come across plastic shopping bags from the 1990s and a plastic bottle with the price marked in shillings – a currency which was phased out in the 1970s.
‘These items show the permanent nature of plastic in our natural surroundings and the sheer scale of the problem we face to clear up our shores,’ says Deborah Vos from Plastic Free Woolacombe, a local environmental charity.
‘By holding events like the Silent Disco Beach Cleans at Woolacombe we aim to connect people with their natural surroundings to ensure residents, communities and visitors alike want to protect what our very existence depends on.’
‘We want to see radical transformation towards a more informed relationship with the environment, resulting in actions like taking part in today’s clean up here at Woolacombe that result in a healthier planet for both people and nature.’
With Silent Disco Beach Cleans set to continue on the last Sunday of each month throughout the summer, it is hoped that more will lend a hand in keeping the beach, rock pool and dunes sandy tidy.
