As usual Friends of Shoreham Beach took part in the Marine Conservation Society’s UK wide beach clean and Survey ( See our report Post http://www.fosbeach.com/news-2016/great-british-beach-clean-fosb-sept-18th-2016/) and the MCS have recently published their findings.

The full report can be found on their website, but here is a summary to whet your appetite

6,000 volunteers cleaned 364 beaches UK wide and removed a recorded 268,384 items of litter ( in addition to the unrecorded bags collected outside the survey areas.

The good news is that our experience on Shoreham Beach of the dramatic reduction in plastic bags was mirrored around the coasts with a 48% reduction in recorded bags removed, proving that the 5p levy has had a major impact. However, there was a big increase in drinks containers and caps ( also echoed by FoSB) and in the number of balloon debris.

Overall the South Coast surveys showed a 10% in litter recorded, sadly this was not replicated around other areas of the coast.

Top 10 items recorded were: