Clean Jurassic Coast take part in Keep Britain Tidy campaign

Keep Britain Tidy marked its 70th anniversary this year and a group of litter pickers from Dorset collected around 70 bags of litter as part of its annual Great British Spring Clean.

The campaign which took place for two and half weeks at the end of March saw eight beaches across the county cleaned.

Volunteers visited Charmouth, Weymouth, Chesil, West Bay, Eweleaze, Kimmeridge, Ringstead and Bowleaze beaches over the course of the two and half weeks to tackle the issue of plastic and litter along the coast.

Roy Beal, a Dorset ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy, and founder of Clean Jurassic Coast said: “The Great British Spring Clean from Keep Britain Tidy is a great annual campaign that highlights these problems, and helps to educate people about the effects of littering.

“Clean Jurassic Coast is proud to a part of their annual campaign. If anyone would like to help and get involved, we also run many other beach cleans through the year.”

Clean Jurassic Coast volunteers during the 2024 Great British Spring Clean (Image: Clean Jurassic Coast)

Clean Jurassic Coast has been a staunch advocate for keeping Dorset’s beaches clean since its creation in 2020.

Mr Beal has been litter picking his whole life and went to explain the issues of plastic and litter that is seen appearing along the coast

He added: "Litter, especially plastic, has a detrimental effect on wildlife. A lot of beach plastic is from the fishing  industry,  either items lost at sea or deliberately dumped overboard.

"Fishing net, rope and other shipping related items often wash onto our beaches. Removing it reduces the chances of fish and mammals getting entangled in it. Removing it also stops it breaking into smaller pieces and reduces the chance of them ingesting it.

"Of course it's not just shipping that's to blame. 

"Throwing things like cigarette ends down a drain, will end up in the sea, or leaving rubbish behind after a day out, it all has an effect.

"It's so frustrating when people leave their waste on our beaches, especially when they would have walked past a bin on their way back to their cars.

Mr Beal continued: "What we really need to do is reduce our use of so many plastics, recycle where possible and bin our waste appropriately. Bringing a reusable water bottle or coffee cup, taking litter home for recycling - these are easy things to do."

Keep Britain Tidy has been hailed a huge success this year with litter pickers in the sout west alone pledging to remove 25,147 bags of rubbish from the region’s streets, parks and beaches during the charity’s annual campaign.