Sign up to join country’s biggest beach clean-up

SCOTLAND’S biggest ever beach clean-up is aiming to clear away tons of rubbish from the nation’s sea front.

The Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) annual litter survey will see more than 100 stretches of coastline north of the Border scoured for everyday detritus, which will then be bagged up and binned.

Analysis of previous years’ findings has been used to inform changes to the law in the war on plastic, such as the levy on single-use shopping bags.

The 2018 Great British Beach Clean will take place across the UK in September and the MCS is appealing for volunteers. Catherine Gemmell, the charity’s Scotland conservation officer, said: ‘The fight to stop the plastic tide has only just started and we need everyone to take part now more than ever.

‘We need the evidence from these surveys to highlight not just to government but to industry and ourselves what action we all need to take next for the sake of Scotland’s seas.

‘The BBC’s Blue Planet II – the 2017 series featuring Sir David Attenborough – has given the UK public a real understanding of the pollution crisis facing our oceans and people really want to make a difference.

‘It’s thanks to the data our amazing volunteers have collected that we were able to give the Scottish Government the evidence it needed to take action on plastic bags, the evidence it needed to implement a Marine Litter Strategy, the evidence to commit to implementing a deposit return system for bottles and cans and to consult on banning plastic cotton bud sticks.’

Last year, 1,588 Scottish volunteers took part in the Great British Beach Clean, picking up nearly 58,000 pieces of litter from 111 mainland and island beaches over four days.

MCS calculated that there was an average of 491.4 pieces found for every 100 metres cleaned, a 7 per cent rise on the figure for 2016.

Litter dropped by the public accounted for 26 per cent, while 21 per cent was items linked to sewage, such as baby wipes.

The latest survey comes after the Daily Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up in May, which saw an army of 12,000 volunteers turn out across the country to rid their communities of litter.