UK’S BIGGEST BEACH CLEAN TO TARGET PLASTIC POLLUTION AT 2,500 BEACHES AND RIVERS NATIONWIDE

FROM TIDELINES TO THE TREASURY

The Big Spring Beach Clean will urge individuals and communities to target ‘avoidable plastics’, helping volunteers to document single-use plastics found on the tideline including cutlery, straws and stirrers, plastic drinks bottles, coffee cups and condiment sachets. Participants will be encouraged to use social media to share images of these items using the hashtag #AvoidablePlastics and #PlasticFreeCoastlines. This evidence will be used to support upstream solutions to preventing plastic waste as the Government considers taxing avoidable and single-use plastics.

THE ‘ATTENBOROUGH EFFECT’

In the last decade, Surfers Against Sewage’s Big Spring Beach Clean has grown into one of the biggest gatherings of environmental volunteers in the world, visiting over 1,200 beaches and removing millions of pieces of plastic from the marine environment.

This huge volunteer effort reflects the recent explosion of awareness and action around the issue of ocean plastic pollution that was powerfully demonstrated by the recent Blue Planet II series. Nicknamed the ’Attenborough Effect’, the series shone an all-encompassing light on the threat that plastic poses to our oceans, leading to a wave of new engagement that can be traced back to ripples generated almost 10 years ago by those pioneer beach clean communities, many of whom are still active with SAS.

Surfers Against Sewage’ Head of Community and Engagement, Dom Ferris said: “We know that up to 13 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year. We know that millions of animals are dying because of this. We know that plastic is literally suffocating our oceans. Yet, despite this, there is hope and nowhere can