Last week, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure joined forces with Valley Primary School in Whitehaven to take part in the Great British Beach Clean at St Bees Beach.
The Great British Beach Clean is the biggest beach clean and survey in the UK. 11 pupils and a member of staff from the school were supported by volunteers from Morgan Sindall Infrastructure and The National Trust.
In groups the pupils surveyed, recorded and collected the rubbish they found and in 2 hours 15 minutes collected 236 items, of which 81% were identified as plastic (including 20 cotton buds). On a previous beach clean at St Bees, 700 cotton buds were collected in just one hour by 30 volunteers.
Lorraine Chilton, environmental advisor at Morgan Sindall Infrastructure and one of the volunteers who supported the children said: “We had a fantastic day working with the Valley Primary School students – they all worked incredibly hard to make the beach as clean as it could be. One of the pupils even said they didn’t realise litter picking could be so much fun!
So many of us are aware of the dangers litter poses for marine life, and days like this highlight how important it is for us to take care and preserve natural resources.
Morgan Sindall Infrastructure is passionate about being a responsible business and ensuring that the local environment and economy are protected.”
Sophie Badrick, from the National Trust who also supported the children with the beach clean said: “Taking part in the beach clean is an excellent way of learning about our environment and raising awareness of marine conservation. Beach cleaning is not only about tidying up beaches and preventing harm to our marine life, it is also about data collection. The Great British Beach Clean programme have been collating data for over 20 years building evidence on litter levels in the UK.”
The data collected by the pupils will be shared with the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC), and will contribute to a worldwide report on litter levels on our beaches. The Marine Conservation Society also analyses the data and uses the results to raise awareness of pollution and tackle it at source in the UK.
