A family living within walking distance of the beach made a discovery on a recent trip that revealed the true cost of plastic pollution almost 40 years on.

The country may be in lockdown but for her daily exercise Carol Hurst, founder of One Bag Beach Clean, is continuing her beach cleans in the area around Helford Passage, along with family members, and logging some noteworthy finds.

Top of the list, for all the wrong reasons, was a crisp packet found on a recent trip to Bar Beach.

Carol said: “The crisp bag was floating around in the seaweed, and although the colours were faded the bag was still in good condition.

“We cleaned it up and sent it to Emily Stevenson at Beach Guardian, a community interest company set up to organise beach cleans and educate people about plastic pollution – and she reported that it was a Golden Wonder crisp packet from around 1982.

“That means it’s been in the sand for around 37 years and the plastic is still intact.

"It really brought home to us that plastic pollution isn’t just about picking up today’s litter on the beach – some of it will continue to pollute the environment for decades.”

One other product that Carol’s found lately is an increasing number of cable ties.

She added: “We found 25 on the same small beach this week, tangled up in rope and fishing line.

"Hopefully lockdown will give people the time to realise that they’re missing our beautiful beaches and coastline, and that they’ll appreciate them a lot more once we’re all able to visit them again.”