Volunteering - Litter Picking

It has been estimated that globally, between 8 and 10 million tonnes of plastic pollution enter the oceans annually which is 80% of all marine pollution. These marine debries can take between 500 and 1000 years to only partially degrade (Fava, 2022). Marine pollution, such as plastics, can have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and its inhabitants such as entanglements, lacerations, suffocations, and infections (Fava, 2022). Not only does this plastic pollution effect marine wildlife, it also effects human health. Humans inadvertantly consume microplastics that has bioaccumulated in seafood and through through drinking water, this consupmtion has been known to damage celss, disrupt energy allocation and induce swellings (Saeedi, 2023).

What can you do to help tackle this problem? Try litter picking along your closest coastline. The North East Scottish Marine Region (NESMR) has various litterpicking initiatives such as Take 4 for the Shore and the Turning The Plastic Tide (TTPT)project. The Marine Conservation Society uses evidence from their findings to lobby Governments for legislative change and apply pressures on industries though campaigning (MCS, n.d.a) suggesting that your time spent cleaning our coasts drives change and reduces marine litter quantities, improving ecosystem and human health in the process. 

In 2018, EGCP launched the TTPT project which aims to promote and co-ordinate beach cleans across the coastline of the NESMR. The project further sets out to train volunteer beach clean organisers, develop a network of trained beached clean volunteers, and install a network of beach clean kits than can be used by voilunteer groups (EGCP, n.d.).

Since their launch, TTPT has facilitated 271 beach cleans with over 6720 volunteers attending cleans between 2018 and 2023 (Fig.1). During 2023, 1620 volunteers participated in 70 beach cleans with community, school, and coperate groups (Fig.2) to help remove over 16.7 tonnes (Smith and Dunkley, 2023), this is over 22% of the total tonnage collected in the projects first 5 years (74.4 tonnest). 

The ‘Take 4 for the Shore’ initiative launched in 2020 to provide an opportunity for anyone and everyone everyone visiting the coastline, and encouraging them to pick up at least 4 pieces of  litter during their visit (Smith and Dunkley, 2023). As of 2023, there are now 19 Take 4 for the Shore beach boxes that all contain  re-usable beach clean bags, recycled black disposable bags, hoops, adult and child litter pickers, gloves, a sharps box, sanitizer, and information outlining best practices for beach cleaning (Smith and Dunkley, 2023)

The NESMR has many organisations that organise litter picks across our coastline, here are a few.
•    EGCP/TTPT
•    Greyhope Bay
•    Forvie NNR
•    St Cyrus NNR
•    Plastic free Stonehaven
•    Paws on plastic
•    Seashell Clothing

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) reported in that in 2023 3,223 volunteers helped collect 349 surveys across Scotland. These surveys showed a 17% increase in litter quantities which averaged 188 items per 100m, 59% of cleans found sanitary materials, 58% of cleans found wet wipes, and 18% of the total litter found was of fishing and aquaculture gear (MCS, n.d.b). However, Scotland saw a 6% decrease in 2023, from the year before, in the abundance of single-use plastics that were found.