The Beach Conservation Society The Problems And How To Volunteer
Sources of marine litter: 40.4% from the public 4.5% Sewage related Debris 13.9% fishing litter 0.7% fly tipping 3.9% shipping 0.2% medical waste 36.3% non-sourced (*BCS Beachaware Survey 2012)
1. Beach litter... at the highest level since records began Litter is swamping our oceans and is washing up on beaches. It kills wildlife, looks disgusting, is a hazard to our health and costs millions to clear up. There are nearly 2,000 items of rubbish for every kilometre on a beach. Marine wildlife gets entangled in litter and accidentally ingests it. Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and the bags block their stomachs, often leading to death from starvation. Seabirds mistake floating plastic litter for food, and over 90% of fulmars found dead around the North Sea have plastic in their stomachs. Plastic litter on beaches has increased 140% since 1994. Plastic never biodegrades. It just breaks down into small pieces but does not disappear. Microplastic particles are now found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Litter comes from many sources - the public, fishing activities, sewage pipes www.beatthemicrobead.org
PROBLEMS
The Beach Conservation Society 100,000 marine mammals and over 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion of and entanglement in maBeach litter is made up of discarded rine litter. Plastic debris can be found objects that do not occur naturally in littering coastlines all across the worlds the marine and coastal environment. oceans, even on the most far-flung and Alarmingly, over the past 15 years the amount of marine litter washing up on inaccessible of beaches. Plastic is not UK beaches has almost doubled. Typical biodegradable and will degrade slower examples of marine litter include waste in the marine environment than on land. from beach users, sewage-related de- A normal plastic bottle may persist for bris, medical waste, shipping debris and more than 450 years if left on a beach. fishing waste. Beach users have to be wary of injury from broken glass, rusting metal or The vast majority of marine litter is plastic, which never truly breaks down. discarded medical waste. We should Experts suggest plastic left in the envi- also be aware that the beach is likely to ronment will be with us in some micro- suffer from sewage discharges if sewscopic form many thousands of years. age-related debris such as cotton bud sticks or tampon applicators are present. Marine litter strewn all over a beach When in the sea, plastics can also adcan also have a detrimental effect on sorb toxic chemicals, becoming increasingly harmful over time, and often tourism with visitors put off from using entering the food chain when mistaken it for recreation. for food items by fish, seabirds, marine mammals and other organisms. Over and shipping, but it is all preventable.
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PROBLEMS
2. Unidentified Floating Object The Unidentified Floating Object (UFO) campaign calls on the public to help identify persistent, unidentified marine litter from our beaches and report their own UFOs, in the hope that BCS can trace the source of the litter and hold the polluters to account! The BCS team have already captured two types of mysterious UFO and are calling on our supporters to help identify what they are and where they might be coming from. Armed with this information BCS will be able to trace the polluter and work with them to prevent these UFO invading our beaches in fu-
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ture. BCS are also calling on beach users all over the UK to be vigilant for regular alien landings when on their local beaches! The campaigns team have been working hard on identifying both of our current objects and has recently discovered the name and source of the blue foam balls washing up nationwide:
TAPROGGE BALLS:
to prevent the further escape of these balls into the marine environment. The second item BCS is seeing regularly on beaches and is having more difficulty in identifying are the blue stoppers, found regularly on Porthtowan and Perranporth beaches in Cornwall. Ear plugs have been suggested but they are too big and hard for ears. These look like bungs, but who uses them, what for and where?
used in cleaning pipes in power stations amongst other industrial sysA new suggestion under investigation tems. We are currently in dialogue is that they may all be components of with the Environment Agency on how the Bead Blasting process.
www.beatthemicrobead.org
PROBLEMS
3. Return To Offender We are encouraging all our supporters to take action in 2013 to become an active part of the BCS award-winning anti beach litter campaign Return To Offender. The campaign has sent over 2000 items of identifiable marine litter found on UK beaches back to the manufacturers, challenging them to:
tives or anti-litter projects.
Since launching in 2006 the Return To Offender campaign has gone from strength to strength, along the way winning the Coast award for Best Blue Green Campaign in 2009. More recently Haribo have responded directly to the RTO campaign challenges, increas• Step up the anti-littering message on ing their anti-litter messaging on packaging by replacing the universal Litter your products. • Look at using less harmful packaging Man icon with a far larger anti-littering to ensure products can be broken icon more appropriate for their cus down naturally without putting wildlife tomers. at risk. • Promote recycling and/or reuse where With your help this campaign can ever appropriate. continue to make a real difference to • Support community beach litter initia- what we find on our beaches, you’re www.beatthemicrobead.org
not only an environmentalist, you’re a consumer, and so these big companies will listen to what you have to say.
BCS Dirty Dozen Below are the worst offenders, those companies whose products we are finding the most on our precious beaches. However, our focus in 2013 will be on companies such as Pepsi UK and Bookers Ltd who have refused to take this issue seriously so far. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Glaxosmithkline/ Lucozade, Kraft, Nestle, Tesco, Mars, United Biscuits, Carlsberg, Unilever, Booker In Bev/Anhesuer Busch The Beach Conservation Society | Problems| 5
PROBLEMS
4. Break The Bag Habit The Beach Conservation Society has joined forces with three other leading environmental charities to call for a levy on single-use bags in England, following the success of such levies in Wales and Ireland.
campaign. In 2011, businesses in the UK issued plastic bags at a rate of 254 a second. A total of eight billion thin-gauge plastic bags were issued during 2011 足a 5.4% increase on the 7.6 billion bags issued in 2010.
England, the only home nation not to have a single-use bag levy in place or to be actively seeking to implement one.
After the first year of such a scheme in Wales, charging 5p per bag, the number of single-use bags issued has fallen by The Beach Conservation Society, the between 70% and 96%, as estimated by Campaign to Protect Rural England retailers. In turn, public support for the (CPRE), Keep Britain Tidy and Surfers Welsh bag levy has grown to 70%. Over the past two years, the number Against Sewage are calling on the Gov- of carrier bags used in England has inWhen Ireland introduced a plastic bag ernment to reduce litter and waste by creased despite repeated Government levy in 2002, plastic bag use fell by 90%. requiring retailers to introduce a small calls for retailers to reduce the numbers Before the Irish levy plastic bags made levy on all single-use bags. Together we they give out. All of this net growth in up 5% of visible litter, afterwards it have launched the Break the Bag Habit the use of such plastic bags came from dropped to 0.32%.
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www.beatthemicrobead.org
Microplastics in our beauty products = microplastics in our sea
Until they take notice, it is important that we do not use care products with plastics. You too can help to end the It seems unbelievable, but it’s true: plastic soup in the ocean. Check the list many personal care products like scrubs of ingredients on the label. Plastics can and peels now contain plastic particles. appear as: Polyethylene / Polythene So, every time we exfoliate or peel off (PE), polypropylene (PP) or Polyethylthose dead cells, we may be doing our ene terephthalate (PET). bodies some good, but we’re giving our seas anything but a make-over. As the Dr Sue Church, BCS Litter Policy Ofproducts are rinsed off, they go down ficer, says: “It’s incredible how many the drain and that means we are flush- everyday products contain micro plastic ing plastic into our seas where it conbeads. These find their way through our tributes to the ‘plastic soup’ problem. sewers and into our seas where they are easily eaten by all sorts of marine The Beat the Microbead campaign, of animals. Help us stop the practice of which BCS is a member, is asking the putting these microplastics in products manufacturers of these care products to by signing the petition and checking out replace all plastic particles with environ- products at home. This App and website mentally friendly alternatives, such as is a great resource for those who want anise seeds, sand, salt or coconut. These to have plastic free products. The micro are materials that were used before plastics in these products are so small plastic particles. that our sewage works cannot deal with
them, so if used they are essentially washed straight out to sea. Are there microplastics in your scrub? In October 2013 an international version of the Beat the Microbead App was launched, which previously had only been available to Dutch consumers.
PROBLEMS
5. Beating the Bead
The App works by scanning the barcode of products and telling the shopper whether or not the product contains plastic microbeads. Products are divided into the categories Red, Orange and Green. Red: the product contains microbeads; Orange: the product contains microbeads but the manufacturer has pledged to stop using microbeads in the near future; Green, the product does not contain microbeads.
Download the App at www.beatthemicrobead.org www.beatthemicrobead.org
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VOLUNTEER
Do Something Volunteering - Help the voice for our seas get louder! Volunteer
Could you be a Sea Champion?
Local Groups
You can volunteer for us in lots of ways. Have a read through these options and find something that works for you. Whichever you choose, you’ll be helping our work towards clean seas and beaches, sustainable fisheries and wildlife protection.
Sea Champions is an exciting initiative launched in 2012 and funded by Marks & Spencer. If you have the passion and drive to help us promote our campaigns and messages at the local level, become a Sea Champion and be part of a national network of volunteers who are getting actively involved in our work.
Our local groups are a great way to support BCS and meet like-minded people in your area, who are passionate about the sea. We presently have support groups in the South East of England, North Northumberland, Southern Scotland, Lancashire, Plymouth and Pembrokeshire.
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www.beatthemicrobead.org
Come Into Our Office
Join our army of beach cleaning volunteers who are helping to combat marine litter. Visit the Beachwatch pages to find out how you can volunteer at a beach clean near you - or even organise one on your favourite beach.
International Partners
Live near Berwick, Dunbar or Edinburgh? Why not come into to our main office and help us out - we always need a hand with data entry, packing cuddly turtles, sending out letters and filing. Even a couple of hours a month would really make a big difference. Get in touch to find out more.
A great way to help save beaches around the world. We sponsor programmes in Ghana and in Malaysia. Get in touch with our international office.
If you feel you have a particular skill and would like to volunteer some of Connect to our partner websites. your time, please get in contact with us http://www.sas.org.uk/ to discuss the many options available. http://www.mcsuk.org/
www.beatthemicrobead.org
Whatever you do, we appreciate your help! The Beach Conservation Society Half-Moon Cottage Torness Beach Dunbar East Lothian EH42 1QU
VOLUNTEER
Our beaches need YOU!
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The Beach Conservation Society Half-Moon Cottage Torness Beach Dunbar East Lothian EH42 1QU www.beatthemicrobead.org http://www.sas.org.uk/ http://www.mcsuk.org/