When you think of a beach setting, lets face it the Thames, London, is not the first that springs to mind. When you go deeper after the selfish thinking that a beach clean is to benefit us as humans so that we can have summer vacations free of waste and litter. Did you stop to think about the other factors? The wildlife that live in the water and surrounding areas? The plants and vegetation that resides on the waters edge? The tens of thousands of tourists who visit London’s Southbank would surely prefer a clean and healthy looking attraction than something full of litter and waste? Surfdome decided to go do something about it and took part in the national Surfers Against Sewage Autumn Beach Clean.
Trash Talk
Working in partnership with Animal Protection UK and Surfers Against Sewage, a team of 30 Surfdome staff headed down to the Southbank to offer help in the autumn beach clean. This was a nation wide campaign to address marine litter and waste, not just on the coastline but also effected rivers. Whilst being given a quick safety brief by the boss of the day, Christina Dixon from World Animal Protection, there was the horrifying fact that animals examined found on this stretch of river have been found with large amounts of plastic and metal objects in their digestive system. When the clean up started it was apparent that, whether it is being dumped further upstream or left on the shore, there was no shortage of this litter.
As the beach clean gained momentum the team gathered used razors, a huge amount of broken glass and an obscene amount of broken cable-ties for which no one could understand why there was such a large amount of the latter. With rivers acting as the main outlet to sea waste, its easy to see why so many animal are caught in distressing situations miles away from our own homes.
With over 20 bags of rubbish collected, everyone involved can be proud to know that whilst taking part in the Surfers Against Sewage Autumn Beach Clean, they had made an impact on the amount litter found on the waters edge.
That’s Rubbish
Whilst the Thames was being given the once over, Surfdome volunteers also took to Croyde beach in Devon. The Surfers Against Sewage beach clean was focused on the main beach at Croyde’s north end, with a second clean planned for this Sunday, focussing on the south end. It is worth noting that due to the excellent work of ‘Ranger Rose‘ from Parkdean holiday camp, who hosts 2 permanent #2minutebeachclean signs, the north end of the beach was exceptionally clean. As the beach has been kept in such high standards, the focus of the clean was on micro plastics and the result was a success with 38 people collecting over 32kgs of broken plastic and cotton buds.
A massive thank you has to be made to Claire Moodie the regional SAS rep, straight back from escaping the devastating forest fires in Indo and on to a windswept beach fighting marine plastic, awesome effort!
The success of the autumn beach clean campaign saw over 3000 people remove over 10 tonnes of marine litter from over 160 beaches across the U.K.
The good news is, with activists like Surfers Against Sewage campaigning for the the last 25 years, we have seen a significant increase in cleaner beaches and a big fall in polluted waters. As a company, Surfdome has taken the next step at reducing the waste and impact we produce by replacing the plastic delivery bags for recylced, bio-degradable boxes. Hopefully with the recent charge on plastic carrier bags we will see less of them gathering on our coastlines and the next time you duckdive, the worry of one appearing on the end of your board will be long gone, but the reality is somewhere far in the distance.
