481,000
for every 100 metres. She said: “PPE is a totally new type of litter ending up in our oceans that we didn’t have last year.
“We’re seeing an increase in the amount of plastics in the marine environment.
“We are gathering them as quickly possible, but once they start to break and disintegrate, that will most likely essentially lead to some serious damage.”
The charity has had to cut down on its litter picks and suspend school programmes because of the pandemic.
This month it is tailoring its plastic-free July campaign for
Covid-19, encouraging people to wear a reusable mask and choose cafes serving takeaways in compostable containers.
She said: “We’re all very much aware that precautions are necessary and rightfully embraced.
“Hopefully raising awareness soon will start to get people
Number of cigarette butts that lie discarded on our streets at any one
time, the leading form of littering thinking about it: ‘This is another single use plastic, what can I do?’
“If we all work together and everybody makes that change, it will build up.”
Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful’s survey estimated the annual clean-up bill for litter is around £45m.
It found that, after cigarette butts (481,000), soft drink cans were the next most common bit of litter with 135,000 pieces on our streets.
A further 115,000 crisps packets and sweet wrappers were thrown away.