The UK’s leading marine charity, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), was joined by Environment Minister and local MP, George Eustice, for a clean-up on Porthtowan beach.

As well as getting hands-on with the tidy up, Mr Eustice took the opportunity to thank volunteers who cleaned the beach last week as part of the nation-wide Great British Clean Up.

Mr Eustice commented on the number of tiny plastic pieces he encountered, so soon after last week’s beach clean when over 4,000 smaller plastic pieces (2.5cm and smaller) were removed by 40 volunteers.

George Eustice, MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, and Minister of State for the Environment and Fisheries said: “I was pleased to see the excellent work that members of the public put in to address the blight of marine litter. But I was shocked to find a whole stream of plastic pellets on Porthtowan beach, and I’m glad that we have the opportunity to look at what can be done about this as part of the forthcoming consultation on microbeads.”

Ros Finney, MCS public affairs manager, said: “We need to tackle the issue at source to make sure these tiny pieces of plastic don’t reach our seas in the first place; that will take the combined effort of governments, industry and the public.”