Beach Clean Volunteers remove 58kgs of waste from Hayling Beach

Nearly 70 volunteers spent their Sunday morning helping to tidy up the beach on Hayling Island on the 21^st May at a beach clean organised by the Final Straw Foundation, an environmental charity based in the area. Together, they picked up 58kgs of rubbish from the shoreline near the Ferry Road Car Park, including thousands of microplastic pieces.

One of the most common finds at the clean-up were cable ties, which may have come from water-based sports activities, as well as hundreds of small plastic rope fragments that most probably originated from the fishing industry. Beach cleaners also removed hundreds of items of disposable plastic food and drinks packaging.

Lissie Pollard, COO of the charity, wanted to thank the volunteers that helped. ‘It’s fantastic to see so many volunteers giving their time to help clean the beach. We had a lot of families with children of all ages at the event, it’s wonderful to see people from all generations invested in looking after our beautiful shores and trying to protect our wildlife from plastic pollution. Hayling Island was looking positively tropical in the sunshine!’.

The charity separates out all the rubbish that is collected on beach cleans into different waste streams, ensuring that anything that can be taken for recycling is diverted from the general waste. At this clean-up, aluminium cans, plastic drinks bottles and glass bottles weighing 2kgs were taken to be recycled after being removed from the shore.

‘We run regular public beach cleans throughout the year,’ Lissie continues, ‘and would love to encourage more people to come along to help. If anyone would like to join us in the future, please follow us on social media or visit our website where we list all our upcoming public clean-up dates. The more the merrier, and it’s a great way to get out in the fresh air and meet new people.’

The next three public beach cleans that the charity has organised are on the 1^st June at Bracklesham Bay, the 16^th June on Hayling Island as part of the Havant Borough Big Green Week and on the 25^th June at Eastney Beach. Visit  https://finalstrawfoundation.org/ to find out more and sign up!