Marine Conservation Society reveals weirdest beach finds of 2021
Melanie May | 29 December 2021 | News
Shotgun cartridges, a bus chair, false toenails and a CCTV camera are among some of the oddest items found by volunteers cleaning up the UK’s beaches in 2021, the Marine Conservation Society has revealed.
Overall, results from this year’s Great British Beach Clean, a week of beach cleaning events across the UK and funded thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, found litter levels to be dropping, suggesting that policies like plastic bag charges and single-use plastic bans are having an impact.
However, 75% of all beach litter collected was made of plastic or polystyrene, and plastic pieces remain the most prevalent form of litter, with an average of 112 pieces found for every 100 metres of UK beach surveyed.
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Last year’s Great British Beach Clean found PPE on 30% of beaches.
Some of the items found by beach clean volunteers:
· CCTV camera
· Hearing aid
· 4 cabbages and 30 orange peels
· Shotgun cartridges
· Sofa
· Bus chair
· Tool box
· False toenails
· Carpet
Lizzie Prior, Beachwatch Manager at the Marine Conservation Society said:
“It’s great to see litter levels continuing to drop on our beaches, but the massive amount of plastic we’re still finding is certainly cause for concern.
“Our dedicated volunteers head to the beach year-round to collect litter and data which is vital to our work. Sometimes, what they find is a little more unusual, and doesn’t quite fit into our survey form’s categories!”
Last week Barnardo’s revealed the weirdest donations its shops had received this year – from a used toilet brush to carrots ends.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.