Time to roll up your sleeves for the Great Dorset Beach Clean
Volunteers collected 165 bags of rubbish from 19 Dorset beaches last year
The Great Dorset Beach Clean is back for 2022 taking place over the week of 2nd – 10th April, coinciding with the first weekend of the Easter school holiday.
The event is co-ordinated by Litter Free Dorset. This year will see 16 beach cleans, hosted by local organisations and community groups, take place along the Dorset Coast, from Lyme Regis to Christchurch.
Sophie Colley, Litter Free Dorset’s Coordinator, said: “Get involved with this year’s Great Dorset Beach Clean to have some fun, meet likeminded people from the community and take part in an Easter litter hunt. Help us clear up our beaches prior to the summer season so we can spread the message that in Dorset we like to keep our beaches clean.”
Last year’s 2021 Great Dorset Beach Clean saw over 300 volunteers take part. There were 19 cleans across the Dorset coast! By working together, we cleared 165 bags of rubbish including tyres, buried rusty lobster pots, tents, oil drums and a gazebo from Dorset’s beaches.
Lizzie Prior, Beachwatch Manager at the Marine Conservation Society, said:
“The Great Dorset Beach Clean is a fantastic project, and we’re really pleased to be involved in this year’s events. We’ll be hosting a beach clean and litter survey for volunteers on 5th April. The data our volunteers collect has a direct impact on our work at the Marine Conservation Society; it helped us to push for plastic bag charges across the UK and we’ve since seen numbers of bags on beaches consistently drop. From a high of 13 on average in 2013, to just three per 100 metres in 2021. Getting involved in beach cleaning projects is a fantastic opportunity to get outdoors, give back and protect our ocean.”