On the first day of the Easter holidays crowds of people were on the beach at Gunwalloe - but sunbathing was the last thing on their minds.

Instead, more than 40 volunteers spent Saturday clearing Church Cove of rubbish and maritime waste, as part of the Surfers Against Sewage Big Spring Beach Clean.

Sam Autie organised the clean-up as part of a wider campaign being held by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), which individuals, community groups and businesses are encouraged to join.

Last year's event saw 946 beach cleans take place around the UK, involving 19,500 volunteers who removed 64 tonnes of marine litter.

Ten black bags full of rubbish were collected at Gunwalloe on Saturday, along with a large amount of plastic that has been taken for recycling.

Sam, who is a SAS rep for the south west, said: "I was absolutely delighted to see so many people willing to take time out of their day to help combat the terrible mess that humans have made of the oceans and coastlines. Things are beginning to change as the marine litter epidemic becomes more noticeable - big companies are slowly but surely changing the way they do things and hopefully many more will follow.

"It's going to be a long and difficult battle, but it is absolutely worthwhile and I'm pleased to be able to play a very small part in it."

As a representative for the organisation, Sam has an official SAS beach clean box containing all the equipment needed to carry out such an event, which can be borrowed by other people and organisations wanting to organise a similar clean-up on the Lizard Peninsula. For more information email Sam at sam.autie@me.com.

The clear-up was also a chance to promote the SAS's Message In A Bottle campaign, calling for the introduction of a Deposit Return System for plastic bottles and other drinks containers. This would involve a small deposit of between 10p and 20p being added to the price of drinks containers, which could then be reclaimed when a person disposed of the product at a collection point.

A petition calling for the system to be introduced currently as more than 200,000 signatures.