Photo credit: johnrobertshepherd

Beachcombers don’t bother, there’s no treasure to be had on British beaches, just a load of trash.  This is the message in Reuters story about how our beaches have deteriorated into rubbish dumps over the last 15 years.  That’s right, the state of British beaches is the worst ever.

A survey by the MSC revealed an average of 2,195 items of litter per kilometer of beach.  Over 5,000 volunteers cleaned and surveyed 374 beaches for the survey, finding 385,659 items of litter.  A third of this litter was made up of food packaging and cigarette butts, and discarded fishing equipment made up another 15%.

All this rubbish not only detracts from the beauty of the beaches, it’s also very dangerous for the wildlife who live on and around them.  Birds and marine animals often accidentally eat litter or plastic, causing infections or death.  They also become entangled in fishing lines and nets that have been discarded.  There’s also the possibility that the plastic eaten by marine animals could end up in the human food chain.  And then there’s cost to taxpayers of cleaning up the awful mess.

Environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies said it was up to the public to take responsibility for the state of the beaches.

“Litter goes in our bins, not on our beaches — and ultimately this is an issue of personal responsibility,” he added.

“This is a problem caused by a minority who spoil things for everyone else, and campaigns against this behaviour can help us to make this unacceptable to everyone.”

So take your litter home with you, and make sure that you recycle all recyclable packaging.  It’s up to you whether our beaches stay beautiful.