In the UK alone, plastic litter has increased by 180% in the last 20 years. Photo: Shutterstock
Everybody loves a good beach clean up. Odds are you’ve been a part of one at some point. But the idea of taking the lead and getting one started at your favorite beach can be daunting. How do you organize enough people to make an impact? What gets others excited to join the cause? And of course there’s the leading question that keeps most people from taking action on the good deeds they’d like to commit – can one person really make a difference?
But according to Surfers Against Sewage the problem of beach litter is far too grand for anyone to ignore. Eight million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year, which equals 15 carrier bags of plastic for every meter of coastline across the globe. And they’ve done the math. There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in our oceans. And in the UK, where Surfers Against Sewage protects our oceans, plastic litter has increased by 180% in the last 20 years. The final cost of it all is the death of over 100,000 marine mammals, turtles and sea birds each year. That’s a direct result of the 13 billion plastic water bottles that are used in the UK each year, while only 23% are recycled. The remaining 10 billion bottles go to landfill or find their way into the environment. These numbers are the motivating factor in SAS’s newest and most ambitious mission. In just one week’s time, from November 2nd – 8th, they’ll set out to remove 15 tons of marine litter from 150 beaches across the UK in their 2015 edition of the Autumn Beach Clean Series.
Through the Autumn Beach Clean Series, SAS is calling for just 150 people in community groups, schools and businesses in coastal communities to volunteer to start their own beach clean up. In the five years of running the series Surfers Against Sewage has learned that empowering volunteers in the community to lead their own clean ups, rather than organizing and supervising themselves, the clean ups have a dramatic impact in the region. It makes their ambitious goal of collecting 3,500 volunteers for the weeklong project a realistic goal with the exponential reach of including community groups. The early results, more than a month away from the series, are staggering. 70 volunteers have registered their local beaches for a clean up, almost half of SAS’s overall goal. But of course with almost 2,000 UK beaches to choose from and a shocking 3,000+ items of litter per mile it’s hard to imagine Surfers Against Sewage will turn away volunteers once they blow past the original goal.
To register your Autumn Beach Clean, or if you’d just like more information on what becoming a Lead Volunteer entails, contact the SAS Beach Clean Team at beachcleans@sas.org.uk.
Photo: Surfers Against Sewage
