On the 4th March 2018, Britain’s Biggest Beach Clean took place on Shoreham by Sea’s spectacular beach and nature reserve. 650 people combed the beach for anything that shouldn’t be there and found 180 bags of rubbish, 100 bags of recycling, and lots of other interesting things, including a fire hydrant, a huge metal pole, a seemingly ancient ring pull and some good examples of how plastic is permeating into many different ecosystems. A video of the event can be found here, along to the soundtrack provided by Joss Stone, of her stunning new song, Oceans. And another video, of the organiser, and author, Georgina Stevens, talking about the reason for the event can be found here.
Some of the by then wet and cold volunteers still managed to brave the wind and rain and form the words ACT NOW to send a message to the world that they care about the issue of ocean plastics, and that they want to see the Government and companies act now on these issues. And all the children were given goody bags which contained a children’s book about ocean plastic, Finn the Fortunate Tiger Shark, written by organiser Georgina Stevens, a reusable water bottleand a bottle of ecover (whose bottle was made of ocean plastic) all in a specially made reusable bag.
This was no run of the mill beach clean! The event kicked off with a “beach clean warm-up” to get 650 people feeling warm and energised before they scoured the beach, in the wind and rain. And everyone seemed to enjoy it!
