Marine week beach cleans & litter surveys

 For about two months now, I've felt desperate to take part in a beach clean. I have no idea why. I think it could be because I'm interested in joining Newcastle University's Beach Cleaning Society - which I hope they're continuing next year. I remember they messaged and asked if I was interested in applying for a role in their committee, as no one had applied for one of them (I can't remember which), and if no one did apply for it, then they wouldn't be able to continue as a committee. So hopefully that didn't happen! I did try to apply, but since I wasn't an actual university student, I wasn't able to do the application - for a bit of context, I did tell them I hadn't joined yet and was just interested in joining in my first year, but they said that I should be able to apply still if I was definitely sure about joining. They haven't made any posts since March, so I am worried the society no longer exists!

Even if this was the case, my sixth form sent an email to everyone (including the Year 13s) a few months ago about volunteering opportunities with the Durham Wildlife Trust, which is when I saw that they had organised local beach cleans. I'd signed up for all three of the ones that are in my town - one being a regular beach clean and the other two being a part of Marine Week, so they include litter surveys. I was lucky enough to be able to snag a spot doing a litter survey for one of them. I'd never done anything like this in my life, and it was an extremely valuable experience, whilst also being a great way to give back to my local community!

I discussed the non-Marine Week beach clean in a previous post, so I'll just be focusing on the other two in this one. For the first beach clean, I opted to do a litter survey as well. This worked by basically marking out a 100m section of the beach, where only people doing the litter survey would be litter picking. I was grouped with these two really nice women; they were picking rubbish whilst I made a tally of each individual item they picked up. It was so tough because at times they were getting so much rubbish that I could hardly keep up - especially with nails. I kept mishearing the numbers they were saying due to the wind, and I felt so bad! But then there were also times when we couldn't find any rubbish in an area. However, this small section of beach had an insane amount of rubbish! We got to the end of the 100m to find what we thought to be a burnt vehicle, as well as lots of rubbish clearly from people who had a barbecue or campfire of some sort. Their bags were heavy by that point, so we had to drop off their bags (and we also handed in the survey as it had been the hour allotted for it by that point) and returned to clean it up. It's absolutely disgusting to see the remains of people having 'fun', when they're clearly just being scruffs. I genuinely don't understand how anyone can think it's appropriate in any way to leave rubbish lying around. It's so upsetting to see how people can disrespect our planet like that. From this beach clean, there were a total of 22 bags! I keep overfilling my bags and making them heavy; it's an art I haven't perfected yet.

The next day, I had an evening beach clean - I opted not to do the litter survey this time as I wanted to get straight into picking! The side of the beach I went to didn't have nearly as much rubbish as the beach from the previous day, but I'm assuming that's because the beach on this day was much larger. I was still able to fill my bag on the way there and back, which I shouldn't be able to do at all - my weirdest find was a pair of socks, for everyone who was wondering oh so much - but it was nice to see how much cleaner it was compared to the other one. I'm not sure if it's just because the weather hasn't been as nice to attract large crowds to the beach or what, but I hope it continues to get cleaner. I never understand how people can come to the beach to enjoy themselves, whether they're tanning, building sandcastles, swimming in the sea, or just running around. But they clearly like nature enough to immerse themselves in it, so why can't they also clean up after themselves? They don't have to clean up after others, but imagine how much nicer the planet would be if people just cleaned up after themselves! I don't even think the problem is a lack of bins. When I was in Paris earlier this month, I usually struggled to find a bin, but I just carried my rubbish because I'm not lazy, and the streets were so clean (especially compared to London). At this beach clean, we managed to get 13 bags, which isn't too bad considering it was a shorter session! Someone also found bits of a burnt car that had gone over the cliffs, and also an old sign.

All of my recent beach cleans (as well as people on Instagram Reels and TikTok) have inspired me, in all honesty. If other people aren't going to do something about the planet, then I will. So I invested in a cheap litter picker - it came on Thursday, which is when I realised its main intention is for people with mobility issues, allowing them to pick things up from places they normally can't reach, but I think it can still be used for litter picking. It's a foldable one too, so it would be ideal to carry in my bag as it's actually quite long! I think about 32 or 33 inches. My first little pick was cleaning up all of the rubbish from outside my house and on my street. I live on a main road, so I can imagine that on top of the rubbish just being from lazy people, it's probably also from losers chucking rubbish out of the car window as they drive past.

As someone who lives on Earth, I think doing these small things like not throwing your rubbish on the floor, recycling properly, and doing big things like organising and attending local litter picks are steps in the right direction towards not only making local areas look more aesthetically pleasing, but more importantly helping the local wildlife. This is something I've recently become obsessed with. There are lots of xenophobes and racists going about painting and hanging flags about, claiming it's because they love their country, and, don't get me wrong, I love my country too, but I think the best way to go about that is to actually do something to improve your country rather than blaming innocent immigrants. I don't want to get too political, as this is not what I want my blog to be about, but I think if people truly loved their country, it would be a lot cleaner, as people would actively take pride in their local area and do these beach cleans and love the people around them rather than ostracising them and posting rubbish on Facebook like a loser.

I know my post kind of went into a ramble off topic, but the recent rise of Reform/Restore UK has really upset me, as most of their voters don't understand their whole ideology and focus on this one "stop illegal immigrants" thing, which is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion; immigrants are and always have been the backbone of this country. The people posting about these sorts of horrible ideas are also normally the same ones who throw rubbish out of cars and leave the local area looking horrid; so-called patriots.

I think the actions of organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts are so incredibly important. In speaking with the girl who organises and leads these beach cleans, I found out that the information from these litter surveys is being sent to the Marine Conservation Society. They're trying to push for things such as being able to earn money from recycling items the proper way - which has been happening in places such as Australia and the USA. This is the only thing I'm going to discuss, as it really stuck out to me. I think a lot of people don't recycle as they don't see the point, as it's just more work for something they don't see the results of (though they should still be doing it; this is just what I think the cause is). By introducing this sort of thing, I think it would make a massive difference to the whole of the UK, especially in underfunded areas. Being able to have another way to earn a bit of side money is something I think a lot of people have been looking for - which is why I think the likes of Vinted, Depop, and Facebook Marketplace are so popular. People only really want to get rid of things if they'll have a monetary reward from it, and it's something I completely understand.

I know my post kind of went quite political, but I really wanted to be able to get my thoughts out into words, and this is my blog, so deal with it. I hope my efforts from litter picking build up over time - I'm certainly signing up for any local August beach cleans; I'm just eagerly awaiting them to be uploaded (I have been promised that they'll be uploaded by the end of this week). I've even debated signing up for a fence repair session on August 2 (the day this will be posted), but I'm hoping to save my back to finish de-weeding the rest of my garden and for volunteering. I hope this post has also inspired more people to sign up with their local Wildlife Trust! I've met some lovely people in the few sessions I attended, and it's one of those things where you don't have to do something every week; you just sign up for what interests you, and I think it's also a great way to gain some experience. They don't just do litter picks; they also do the aforementioned fence repair sessions, invasive species management (like balsam bashing), and lots of social events. So overall, I think this is a great volunteering experience that everyone should get involved with - though you do have to be over the age of 18 to apply, but you can bring people under 18 with you.