Rubbish from overseas littering the Solway Firth
Some have come from as far away as America, China and South Africa
Rubbish from overseas is being found washed up on beaches along the Solway Firth.
Some have been identifiable due to company names being imprinted or certain branding which has allowed volunteers from beach clean ups to locate where it has come from.
So far, they and the Solway Firth Partnership have found items from Spain, France and Wales but even as far as America, South Africa and China.
This includes typical items such as lobster creels and plastic bottles, but recently, two rocking horses were also found.
Big problem
Nic Coombey, who is the project manager at Solway Firth Partnership, says this is a bigger problem than he first thought:
“I think the more we know about where it comes from, the more we can do about it. I had kind of anticipated that most of this would have come from local sources and made its way from the river into the sea, but once we started looking, we discovered that some things have come from a long, long way away.
“Sometimes we find litter that has been purposely put into the sea such as messages in bottles – they’re always fun to find.”
Doing something about it
He adds that he has even reached out to some companies whose rubbish belongs to, such as fishing crews.
“Something like the hard hat we found, we know it was made in America and must have been in the tropical sea because it had goose barnacles attached to it but sometimes, we do actually find names and addresses on them, so I’ve been in touch with a couple of fishermen from across the water.
“Some have come back apologising.”
What they’ve found
Here are some of the items he has found in the beach clean ups:
“I suppose the most common item is water bottles and caps. We also find quite a lot of hot chocolate containers from Spain, but the most unusual item I have found yet is a rocking horse. What was more unbelievable about that was in the next bay along, I found another rocking horse.
“Certainly, the furthest travelling things tend to come from commercial fishing, usually lobster pots and buoys from boats – we’ve found some come from Massachusetts that have come right across the Atlantic.”
Need to do something about it
Coombey urges for a better solution to be found to this problem:
“Sometimes, things provide unreliable evidence, so we sometimes find things from places like South Africa or China, particularly drinks bottles, but we’re pretty sure they’ve been thrown off cargo ships rather than travelling all that distance.
“The main thing is that the beach cleans are really good and the volunteers cleaning up beaches are doing a wonderful job, but it’s not really the solution to the problem, it’s just raising awareness. What we really need to be is more careful of the way that we use and dispose of plastics.”
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