BCS BEACH CONSERVATION SOCIETY
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BCS
Five Things To Care About
BEACH CONSERVATION SOCIETY
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Unidentified Floating Object
Beach litter
It kills wildlife and looks disgusting. ItĂs a hazard to our health and costs millions to clear up.
Return To Offender
help identify persistent, unidentified marine litter from our beaches and report their own UFOs
Five Things To Care About
become an active part of the BCS award-winning anti beach litter campaign Return To Offender
Beating the Bead
asking the manufacturers of these care products to replace all plastic particles with environmentally friendly alternatives
Break The Bag Habit
Keep Britain Tidy and Surfers Against Sewage are calling on the Government to reduce
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Beach litter is at the highest level since records began. Itís swamping our oceans and is washing up on beaches. It kills wildlife and looks disgusting. Itís a hazard to our health and costs millions to clear up.
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Beach Litter 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 never biodegrades. It just breaks down into small piec• 5
“2,000 items of rubbish for every kilometre on a beach” es. Microplastic particles are now found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. 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.
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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 • 7
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 re-
cently discovered the name and source of the blue foam balls washing up nationwide. These are 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. • 8
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 • 9
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: Step up the anti-littering message on your products. Look at using less harmful packaging to ensure products can be broken down naturally without putting wildlife at risk. • 1 0
Promote recycling and/or reuse wherever appropriate. Support community beach litter initiatives or anti-litter projects. With your help this campaign can continue to make a real difference to what we find on our beaches, you’re not only an environmentalist, you’re a consumer, and so these big companies will listen to what you have to say. “The campaign has sent over 2000 items of identifiable marine litter found on UK beaches back to the manufacturers”
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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 Pepsico UK and Bookers Ltd who have refused to take this issue seriously so far.
Coca-Cola • Pepsico • Glaxosmithkline/Lucozade • Kraft • Nestlé • Tesco • Mars • United Biscuits • Carlsberg • Unilever • Booker • In Bev/ Anhesuer Busch
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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. 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. • 1 3
“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. 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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Beating The Bead 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 make-over. 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 environ-
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mentally friendly alternatives, such as anise seeds, sand, salt or coconut. These are materials that were used before plastic particles. In October 2013 an international version of the Beat the Microbeads App was launched. 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 future; Green, the product does not contain microbeads. • 1 6
BCS BEACH CONSERVATION SOCIETY
Download the App at www.beatthemicrobead.org.
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Join us for the big North-East clean-up
The Beach Conservation Society 26 The Promenade Whitley Bay Newcastle upon Tyne NE26 2RL More than 11,000 volunteers removed 24,000 pounds of rubbish last year for North-East Coastal Cleanup Day, the largest volunteer day on the planet. Join us on September 6th 2014 to make a massive difference for our environment. Connect to our partner websites. • http://www.sas.org.uk/ • http://www.mcsuk.org/
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CALL US
to volunteer for the big day on 0632-677-478 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.
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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 clean-up. Shields Dive Services will provide free air fill and half price gear rentals for SCUBA dive volunteers.
Whitley Bay Beach ñ 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.
Tynemouth Long Sands. Start the Day with a free yoga class and peace circle with NaamvYoga at 8:30am. After you help
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.
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 Maryís Pizza to win a stand-up paddle board at 3pm.
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FREE LUNCH
North Blyth - Enjoy a compliments of Barclays Bank for all cleanup 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.
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BCS BEACH CONSERVATION SOCIETY
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