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THE BEACH CONSERVATION SOCIETY | Pg. 1

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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 | Pg. 2

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 and shipping, but it is all preventable.

Beach litter is made up of discarded objects that do not occur naturally in the marine and coastal environment. Alarmingly, over the past 15 years the amount of marine litter washing up on UK beaches has almost doubled. Typical examples of marine litter include waste from beach users, sewage-related debris, medical waste, shipping debris and fishing waste.

The vast majority of marine litter is plastic, which never truly breaks down. Experts suggest plastic left in the environment will be with us in some microscopic form many thousands of years. When in the sea, plastics can also adsorb toxic chemicals, becoming

increasingly harmful over time, and often entering the food chain when mistaken for food items by fish, seabirds, marine mammals and other organisms.

Over 100,000 marine mammals and over 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion of and entanglement in marine litter. Plastic debris can be found littering coastlines all across the world‚ oceans, even on the most far-flung and inaccessible of beaches. Plastic is not biodegradable and will degrade slower in the marine environment than on land.

A normal plastic bottle may persist for more than 450 years if left on a beach.

Beach users have to be wary of injury from broken glass, rusting metal or discarded medical waste. We should also be aware that the beach is likely to suffer from sewage discharges if sewage-related debris such as cotton bud sticks or tampon applicators are present.

Marine litter strewn all over a beach can also have a detrimental effect on tourism with visitors put off from using it for recreation.

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 2014)

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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 future. 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 used in cleaning pipes in power stations amongst other industrial systems. We are currently in dialogue with the Environment Agency on how 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? A new suggestion under investigation is that they may all be components of the Bead Blasting process.

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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: 1. Step up the anti-littering message on your products.

2. Look at using less harmful packaging to ensure products can be broken down naturally without putting wildlife at risk.

3. Promote recycling and/or reuse wherever appropriate.

4. Support community beach litter initiatives 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.

far larger anti-littering icon more appropriate for their customers. With your help this campaign can continue to make a real difference to what we find on our beaches, you‚ not only an environmentalist, you‚ a consumer, and so these big companies will listen to what you More recently Haribo have responded directly have to say. to the RTO campaign challenges, increasing their anti-litter messaging on packaging by Below are the worst offenders, those compareplacing the universal Litter Man icon with a nies whose products we are finding the most

on our precious beaches. However, our focus in 2013 will be on companies such as Peps co UK and Bookers Ltd who have refused to take this issue seriously so far.

BCS dirty dozen Coca-Cola - Pepsico - Glaxosmkline/Lucoza de Kraft - Nestlé - Tesco - Mars United Biscuits - Carlsberg - Unilever Booker In Bev/Anhesuer Busch

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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.

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 ≠a 5.4% increase on the 7.6 billion bags issued in 2010.

Over the past two years, the number of carrier bags used in England has increased despite repeated Government calls for retailers to reduce the numbers they give out. All of this net growth in the use of such plastic bags came from England, the only home nation not to have a single-use bag levy in place or to be actively seeking to implement one.

The Beach Conservation Society, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Keep Britain Tidy and Surfers Against Sewage are calling on the Government to reduce litter and waste by requiring retailers to introduce a small levy on all single-use bags. Together we have launched the Break the Bag Habit campaign.

After the first year of such a scheme in Wales, charging 5p per bag, the number of single-use bags issued has fallen by between 70% and 96%, as estimated by retailers. In turn, public support for the Welsh bag levy has grown to 70%.

When Ireland introduced a plastic bag levy in 2002, plastic bag use fell by 90%. Before the Irish levy plastic bags made up 5% of visible litter, afterwards it dropped to 0.32%.

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5.

Beating the Bead Microplastics in our beauty products = microplastics in our sea It seems unbelievable, but it’s true: many personal care products like scrubs and peels now contain plastic particles. So, every time we exfoliate or peel off those dead cells, we may be doing our bodies some good, but we’re giving our seas anything but a makeover. As the products are rinsed off, they go down the drain and that means we are flushing plastic into our seas where it contributes to the ‘plastic soup’ problem.

The Beat the Microbead campaign, of which BCS is a member, is asking the manufacturers of these care products to replace all plastic particles with environmentally friendly alternatives, such as anise seeds, sand, salt or coconut. These are materials that were used before plastic particles. | Pg. 7

Until they take notice, it is important that we do not use care products with plastics. You too can help to end the plastic soup in the ocean. Check the list of ingredients on the label.

Dr Sue Church, BCS Litter Policy Officer, says: “It’s incredible how many everyday products contain micro plastic beads.

These find their way through our sewers and into our seas where they are easily eaten by all sorts of marine animals. Help us stop the practice of putting these microplastics in products by signing the petition and checking out products at home. This App and website is a great resource for those who want to have plastic free products. The micro plastics in these products are so small 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?

Plastics can appear as: Polyethylene / Polythene (PE), polypropylene (PP) or Polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

In October 2013 an international version of the ‚Beat the Microbead‚ App was launched, which previously had only been available to Dutch consumers.

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.

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More than 11,000 volunteers removed 24,000 pounds of rubbish last year for North-East Coastal Cleanup Day,the largest volunteer day othe planet.

Connect to our partner websites. http://www.sas.org.uk/ http://www.mcsuk.org/

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The Beach Conservation Society 26 The Promenade Whitley Bay Newcastle upon Tyne NE26 2RL

Call us to volunteer for the big day on 0632-677-478. | Pg. 9

Seaham Harbour - Join us for a busy day in Seaham and in the evening have a great time with a vegetarian dinner and then music from North East girl band Jazawaki.

Marsden Grotto - By helping clean this historic site, you’ll be entered into a raffle for a custom surfboard. Meet at the restaurant at the base of the cliff at 9.00am.

South Shields Pier - If you are SCUBA dive certified, this is the site for you. Arrive for the dive at 8am. Prizes will be awarded for the most bizarre items found after the cleanup. Shields Dive Services will provide free air fill and half price gear rentals for SCUBA dive volunteers.

Tynemouth Long Sands - Start the Day with a free yoga class and peace circle with Naam Yoga at 8:30am. After you help cleaning the beach, you can enjoy a free stand-up paddleboard clinic with Michelob Light. Participants get a free admission to the Blue Reef Aquarium.

Cullercoats Pier - Bring your recyclables to and you’ll be entered to win exciting Tetleys Tea raffle prizes this Coastal Cleanup Day. After the clean-up, join us at Geordie Mary’s Pizza to win a stand-up paddle board at 3pm.

Whitley Bay Beach – The Library will be celebrating Talk-Like-A-Pirate day a few days late with a Moby Dick screening, food and sea shanties after the cleanup. Celebrate your volunteer service at Whitley Ale House with a beer garden and live DJ for the Coastal Cleanup Day after-party.

Seaton Sluice - This cleanup will focus on the dunes. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. This cleanup is hosted in partnership with the parish council.

North Blyth - Enjoy a free lunch compliments of Barclays Bank for all clean-up volunteers.

Newbiggin By The Sea - Yoga Trailblazers hosts a free yoga class on the beach from 8:30-9:30 am before the cleanup. Bring a yoga mat and wear sunscreen for this beginner class. Veggie Grill will also provide food to keep volunteers energized.

Cresswell Bay - Start early with us and finish at lunchtime. Spend the afternoon strolling along the dunes, with the option of joining a game of Beach Volleyball

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