TTPT Litter Tonnage 

The EGCP’s Turning the Plastic Tide project has been up and running since 2018, organising beach cleans and promoting the health of East Grampian beaches. This section will focus on the volume and type of litter collected during TTPT beach cleans. For more information on volunteer numbers and school engagement, please visit the respective pages. 

Total Tonnage:
2024 has been the biggest year yet for the TTPT project in terms of litter collected. With 59 cleans conducted, the year total stands at 37.3 tonnes, a total greater than any previous year (Smith and Dunkley, 2024). This number is more than half the previous 74.4 tonne total collected between 2018 and 2023 (Smith and Dunkley, 2023). Combining the totals as in fig. 1, the grand total now stands at over 110 tonnes (Smith and Dunkley, 2024). 

Litter Types:
The major source of litter along the East Grampian coastline is plastic (Smith and Dunkley, 2023). A symptom of 21st century industry, plastics can persist in the oceans for thousands of years (Watt et al, 2021), breaking down from larger pieces into tiny microplastics. 

While plastic is most common overall, each individual East Grampian beach may be prone to certain types of litter above others. This litter distribution depends on factors like ocean currents, public popularity, and proximity to harbours. For example, Sandford Bay, near the busy fishing port of Peterhead, is prone to fishing waste (Lovie, 2023) – this form of waste makes up 10% of all ocean pollution (Watt et al, 2021). 

Fig. 2 represents the frequency of TTPT cleans over 2024 in which various types of litter were encountered. Food packaging, plastic, microplastic, cigarettes, rope, netting, and polystyrene appear to be the most commonly encountered types of litter. 

Litter Sinks:
Along the East Grampian coast, there are multiple notorious ‘litter sinks’ - sites where currents cause vast quantities of litter to gather. Such sites include Cairnbulg Boat Haven and Sandford Bay (Paris, 2019), which consequently are often the site of highly successful TTPT beach cleans. For example, a 2024 clean with the SSEN Transmission and Keltbray Group removed 25.5 tonnes from Sandford Bay in just one day (Smith and Dunkley, 2024). The beach pre-clean is shown in fig. 3. 

How to Get Involved:
Should a TTPT event sound interesting to you, your organisation, or your school, please reach out! Various methods of contacting us are listed below:

• Email: 
   TTPT Project Manager Lauren Smith: lauren.smith@egcp.org.uk
   TTPT Project Officer Lauren Dunkley: lauren.dunkley@egcp.org.
•  Eventbrite:
   https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/turning-the-plastic-tide-57209531943
   All public events are advertised here 
•  Facebook:
   https://www.facebook.com/TTPTnortheast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ttptnortheast/utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw%3D%3D
•  Bluesky: 
   https://bsky.app/profile/ttptnortheast.bsky.social
•  LinkedIn: 
   https://www.linkedin.com/company/turning-the-plastic-tide/?viewAsMember=true