Beach users in Burnham-On-Sea and Berrow are being encouraged to spend two minutes picking up litter from local beaches as part of a new initiative to improve their cleanliness.
The new campaign was launched on Friday (September 2nd) by the locally-run project Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset, which has unveiled several promotional boards in Burnham and Berrow, as pictured here, to encourage local people to get involved.
Harriet Yates-Smith, the scheme’s Project Officer, says the boards intend to remind people to keep beaches clean and promote a shared responsibility to minimise litter.
The promotional boards provide litter pickers and plastic bags for beach users to safely remove litter, and also encorage users to take a photo of what they find and share it on social media, and then also to recycle the litter where possible.
Harriet told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Approximately eight million individual pieces of marine litter enter the sea every day, threatening our eco-systems, marine life and communities. The 2-minute beach clean boards give everyone the opportunity to get involved, look after their environment and help keep Burnham-On-Sea beautiful.”
“The stations provide all the equipment required, including plastic bags, a litter picker and information on keeping safe whilst cleaning. So we’re inviting everyone to get involved because small actions really can make a difference.”
Sedgemoor District Council – which is sponsoring the initiative – says its beach wardens will be looking after the signs on Burnham and Berrow beaches each day and making sure that they are in a sensible place where they are not at risk of people tripping over them or blowing away.
A Sedgemoor District Council spokeman added: “We are pleased that the 2-minute beach clean boards are now on display. Sedgemoor, along with the Bathing Water Quality Group, are looking at various ways of trying to improve the quality of the water at Burnham-On-Sea and this is just one way in which residents and visitors can help. “
Litter Free Coast & Sea Somerset is a community led campaign to reduce marine and beach litter and improve bathing water quality in Somerset.
