Cornwall needs more cleaners

Not for polishing and vacuuming – but for giving the county’s beaches a thorough tidy up!

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) says a lack of local volunteers for its ‘Great British Beach Clean’ (18th- 21st September) around the Cornish coastline could mean the county’s beaches are being taken for granted and may result in tourists turning their backs on some of the most beautiful coastline in the UK.

The MCS beach clean event takes place every third weekend in September as part of the charity’s year round Beachwatch programme. Volunteers who get involved will be joining an army of beach cleaners not just around the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, but all over the world as part of the global International Coastal Clean-up, which takes a snap shot of beach litter across the planet on a single weekend.

This year only a handful of volunteers have so far registered to clean up some of Cornwall’s beaches.

Charlotte Coombes, MCS Beachwatch Officer says the lack of sign–ups along a coastline with so many beautiful beaches is a real shame: “All of our Great British Beach Clean events are organised by volunteers, and they need your help. We want to match last year’s figures and see at least 5,000 volunteers taking part nationwide - 468 of which were in Cornwall in 2014. We’d love to see people heading to the Cornish coastline and helping clean up at the events that have been organised at Crantock, Daymer Bay, Fistral, Gunwalloe, Gwithian, Holywell, Kennack Sands, Millendreath, Porth Beach, Porthpean, Porthtowan and Watergate.”

Each event only takes a couple of hours and, alongside the clean; 100 metres of beach are surveyed. The form is straightforward to complete, and helps MCS to add to the local and UK litter data picture, as well as the global view. Each clean-up has an organiser so there’s plenty of advice on the day on how to fill in the simple data sheets. This information will be used by MCS to work with governments and industry in the charity’s ongoing work to stop litter getting on to our beaches in the first place.

Charlotte says the data collected through the Beachwatch programme is vital: “It raises awareness of just how much of a problem marine litter is, and everyone goes home with a better understanding of how they can help. Plastics can last for hundreds of years in the sea, harming wildlife and threatening livelihoods, so every little bit that our volunteers remove will make a difference for a long time to come. The data our volunteers collect helps us find out where the litter is coming from and gives us the evidence to help stop it from ever getting there in the first place.”

To get involved in the Great British Beach Clean 2015 in Cornwall and be part of the most influential fight against marine litter in the UK visit www.mcusk.org/beachwatch You can also speak to the team on 01989 566017

If you can’t make it to a beach at the end of September, but would still like to help MCS combat the problem of marine litter, then join the charity or make a donation at www.mcsuk.org You can also sign up to help with events at other times of the year by visiting www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch