Action Nan Pat Smith’s Diary of 31 Days of Litter Cleaning

Action Nan Pat Smith’s Diary of 31 Days of Litter Cleaning #GBSpringClean

Day One Today I am heading out again for Keep Britain Tidy Spring Clean which is on for 30 days. Having been invited to become a Litter Heroes Ambassador by the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign for my efforts in beach cleaning, this is the next step and I have pledged to do at least 1 ‘Spring Clean’ litter pick per day for the next 30 days!

Following on from my 52 beach cleans last year I have pledged to do one litter pick per day for the next 30 days to coincide with this event. They will be in various locations, some inland on streets and roadside verges, some in villages or towns and some on beaches.

I have yet to set out to pick up litter and come back empty handed- sadly it is everywhere and the sad thing is that most people walk past it as if it’s nothing to do with them!

I can assure you that I am not picking up my own litter and I am doing this because I care about the effect plastic is having on our countryside, marine wildlife and ultimately our own health.

There are many organised events so please have a look for one near you and join in, it’s social, good exercise and good for the planet. What’s not to like?

My first clean today was in Charlestown where I cleaned both beaches and around the car park and harbour. I took a carrier bag and stopped when it was full, took about an hour.

Day Two Today’s clean up was organised by the St Austell Tidy Up Team, joined by Steve Double MP and led by Councillor James Mustoe.

It was centred around Bishop Bronescombe School on the edge of town. A small group of about 8 of us turned up, which surprised me as the schoolchildren, teachers and parents were all invited and none except for Cllr Mustoe’s family turned out to help!

Around the school entrance there were many sweet wrappers and pop bottles (no surprises then) quite often forcibly stuffed into the hedge making them difficult to remove. Towards the playing field there was a dead zone – a piece of waste land behind a fence with no access routes – and there lay most of the rubbish.

The area was full of brambles and after climbing the fence I had a very difficult task of hacking my way through them to reach the hidden ‘ treasure’ which comprised 2 traffic cones, a bicycle wheel, a ceramic toilet pan, Christmas tree holder, hundreds of dog poo bags, beer cans and plastic and glass bottles and other random bits of plastic.

In about an hour we collected 8 sacks full plus the random large items described above. They were all pretty heavy and we were delighted to see a Biffa truck arrive early to help us load the waste for disposal.

The whole area looked so much better for a Spring Clean and I couldn’t help thinking how much nicer would it have been if some of the local parents had been involved and maybe then they would have been inspired to look after it in the future!

Day Three Today I joined my regular beach cleaning group, 3 Bays Wildlife, on Pentewan beach for a beach clean organised by James Mustoe and the lovely Toni Dowrick. A good crowd turned out for this event, helped I’m sure by it being a lovely sunny Spring Day and that James and Toni have worked hard to encourage locals to look after their beach.

The clean coincided with massive Spring tides and we were able to walk on the shoreline to the long abandoned fishing settlement of Portgiskey, only accessible normally from the coast path.

The beach was amazingly clean and I only managed to fill half a black bag of litter today but I did have an interesting jellyfish find.

At first glance I thought it was a turtle it was so big but looking it up at home I think it was a barrel or dustbin lid jellyfish which can reach up to 90cm across. Interestingly it is a favourite food of turtles and looking at it on the beach I could see how floating plastic bags filled with water could be easily mistaken for food and how plastic is such a problem for marine life.

It was nice to see people engaged with cleaning the beach but it was a strong contrast to yesterday and the altogether nastier job of cleaning up the roadsides, streets and hedgerows. Maybe we need to focus more on getting people to ‘Love where they live!’

Day Four Today I revisited a field close to where I live which is used as a meeting place for youngsters who want to hide themselves away without adult supervision. I’m sure it is a rite of passage for all teenagers and I have a lot of sympathy for them choosing these out of the way places nowadays when there are hardly any youth clubs or welcoming village halls to gather in.

I have fond memories of Summer evenings with our gang up at the ‘Rec’ where we would hang out and drink the odd can of beer and puff on an illicit fag or two and I am sure this place is offering local teenagers a similar bolt hole!

What I struggle with is the amount of litter they leave behind.

This field was peppered with broken bottles, cans, aerosol sprays, takeaway food wrappers, plastic bottles and plastic bags. It was also being grazed by sheep and lambs.

My granddaughter and I spent an hour picking up the rubbish and bringing it home for safe disposal. Not a pleasant job but it meant that none of it could injure wildlife or get blown or washed into the sea.

Day Five This morning I made an early start and cleaned the slip road off the A390 headed for Trelowth and Sticker near St Austell. I regularly clean this stretch outside my workplace as it seems to be a catch point for litter thrown from car windows. I think it is because there is no oncoming traffic or houses and drivers think they won’t be seen throwing out their rubbish.

It was the usual assortment of takeaway coffee cups, styrofoam meal containers, drinks cans and bottles, plastic bags and sweet wrappers. In just 500 metres of roadside litter picking I collected 2 carrier bags full in 15 minutes. I can place bets that next week it will be exactly the same.

Day Six Today I met up with a group of students studying for a Msc in Sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University doing a field course at the Eden Project who were keen to do a beach clean. It was organised by our local Councillor James Mustoe who supplied all the litter pickers and waste sacks plus a fount of knowledge of the local area and where most of the plastic was likely to be found on the beach at Caerhays near Gorran Haven.

It was a glorious day and there were many people on the beach enjoying the warmth of the Spring sunshine. The beach was relatively clean but as a group we filled 2 black sacks with the usual small broken up pieces of plastic bottles, lids, monofilament net, plastic rope, cigarette lighters and sweet wrappers. One of the groups found the plastic lining of an old fridge and the polystyrene insulation. There were picnic remains in the dunes and a half buried disposable bbq. My grandchildren Joined us after school and found a mini compass and a pair of sunglasses -treasure trove!

I was thrilled to see the whole group enjoying the whole experience and as always I was keen to stress to them that even though they may not live near a beach, it was equally important to litter pick the roadsides, parks and streets where they live to stop the plastic getting into the sea in the first place!

Day Seven Today’s litter pick was a beach clean at Porthpean near St Austell with staff from local and Regional offices of HSBC. It was organised

by James Mustoe and Toni Dowrick with equipment supplied by Clean Cornwall.

It was yet another glorious sunny day and people were sunbathing and swimming in the sea. As the sea has been quite calm in this weather dominated by high pressure, there has been very little debris washed up on our locals beaches. However there is always some plastic and fishing line tangled up in the seaweed and today was no exception. I found 3 well chewed balls today - obviously abandoned by dog owners and a rugby ball in very good order!

Altogether we collected 2 sack fulls of litter which will not be ending up back in the sea ......

Day Eight Not much time today so just a quick whizz down to Charlestown beaches and a look over the seaweed. I found the usual small pieces of plastic and net together with polystyrene pieces. There’s been quite a lot of chunks of builders filler foam washing in lately, goodness knows where from but I am sure it will be releasing nasty chemicals into the water as it breaks down.

I read an interesting article today saying that when foraging many marine animals, including albatrosses, rely primarily on their sense of smell. Some species of seabirds and fish are attracted to plastic by its odour. Specifically, they implicated dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a compound known to attract foraging birds, as the chemical cue emanating from plastic. Essentially, algae grows on floating plastic, and when that algae is eaten by krill – a major marine food source – it releases DMS, attracting birds and fish that then munch on the plastic instead of the krill they came for.

That would explain why large quantities of plastic have been found in seabirds’ and whales’ stomachs and why it is vital to stop plastic being dumped in the sea. Please help by not littering and picking up plastic wherever you see it.

Day Nine

This day’s #GBSpringClean was a litter pick of the Rashleigh Arms Charlestown car park. I must admit that I hadn’t expected the whole black sack that I filled today. Most of the litter originated from the pub and consisted of beer bottles, glasses, plastic bottles and crisp packets, some dating back to 2014. As the pub is very close to the harbour it is highly likely that in a heavy storm a lot of the plastic would have washed out to sea.

There was no bin in the car park which I am sure would help. I popped in and spoke to Robbie the duty manager who was very supportive and kindly took the heavy bag off my hands. I am hoping to start a litter pick group in our village to tackle these catch points on a regular basis as it’s a bit overwhelming on my own. Any offers of support would be very welcome.

Day Ten Today my #GBSpringClean was on a roadside pavement and field edge at the Holmbush end of Charlestown. It is a place where people in cars have just driven the distance from the supermarket it takes to eat crisps or a bar of chocolate or swig down a drink before throwing them out of the car window. It’s also a walking route to the shops and schools from the village or housing estates so I’m sure some litter arrives from pedestrians too.

I have been noticing more and more rubbish gathering here so was pleased to clear it up today. It largely consisted of drink bottles, cans, sweet and takeaway wrappers and dog poo bags, all in a field where sheep were grazing. I collected a full black sack in 20 minutes. I think a roadside bin placed here would make a difference.

Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so only a pic of the full bag today!

Day Eleven Busy day today so just time for a quick whizz down to Charlestown Village West beach for my #GBSpringClean this morning. In 5 minutes I collected 20 or so plastic items and one kind person had even left me their umbrella!

Just goes to show that we can all make a difference with a few minutes’ effort.

Day Twelve Today of my #GBSpringClean was around the pubs in Charlestown, picking up cigarette butts. With all the focus on plastic waste, cigarette butts have almost been overlooked but the most startling fact is that globally they are the single most littered item in the world and the largest ocean contaminant. They certainly figure is most of the beach cleans I have done and stubbing them out on the ground in a place as close to the sea as Charlestown, means inevitably they will soon wash down the street into the drains and out to sea.

Studies have shown that even small quantities of cigarette butts in ocean water can be fatal to fish and marine organisms. Cigarette butts contain many toxic chemicals, including arsenic, nicotine, various heavy metals and a class of compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are released into the environment from discarded cigarette butts. Contrary to popular belief cigarette filters are not biodegradable and take about 10 years to break down in sea water.

Now with an indoor smoking ban in force, smokers are driven to congregate outside pubs and unfortunately most cigarette butts are flicked or stubbed out on the ground. One pub has a cigarette butt receptacle but despite that it is often surrounded by ones casually thrown down. I don’t know what the answer is, buckets of sand near the door? Telling smokers how bad it is for the ocean probably won’t work as they know it’s bad for their own health and carry on doing it!!

Day Thirteen Today of my #GBSpringClean was a rather scarey experience on the roadside verge of the A390 at St Mewan dip just outside St Austell. The traffic is moving fast here as it escapes the 30mph restriction and enters a dual carriageway on the way to Truro. It is a notorious black spot for RTA’s and every few months one or two cars career off the road at speed into the ditch, often with fatal consequences.

It is also a litter catch point and on my drive to work I notice it building up until I just have to go and pick it up. I filled a black bag in 20 minutes with the usual food packaging debris, bread bags, takeaway cups, lids, straws, cans, bottles, crisp and sweet wrappers.

Another litter feature appearing on roadsides is bouquets of flowers placed at accident sites in memory of loved ones. I did not interfere with the one I found but it consisted of dead flowers all wrapped in cellophane and just waiting for the wind and rain to spread it around the countryside and become polluting litter. I understand the need to grieve and pay ones’s respects but maybe friends and relatives could plant a flower or tree instead or just leave the bouquets of flowers without the packaging? Just like advertising signs for events pinned to trees and signposts, very few are taken down afterwards by the people who put them there and they all become litter as they decay.

Day Fourteen Today of my #GBSpringClean and today I tackled the lay-by at St Mewan dip on the A390 just outside St Austell. All lay-bys are notorious for litter and this was no exception. The tarmac and grass verge was plastered with a variety of debris, again mostly food packaging waste as I expect people park up to eat their takeaways and then just throw it out of the window. McDonalds and Costa Coffee featured in the litter today.

However the main story is yet to come. At the field edge of the lay-by is a steep slope and I was absolutely shocked to see the volume of rubbish thrown over the edge into the field below.

There was no way I was venturing over to pick it up, it was far too big a job for me! There were car and tractor tyres, cones, builders waste and people had obviously backed a trailer up and fly tipped a mass of household waste. I am hoping Biffa Waste who have a depot just across the road at Tregongeeves may be able to help out.

Day Fifteen I didn’t finish work last night til 10pm so no chance of any litter picking but had planned 2 for today so still on track. Today I headed over to Perranporth on the North coast to join my friend Kelly who runs Walk Kernow Nordic Walking for the Surfers Against Sewage Big Beach Clean. They have 600 cleans this week taking place all around the country with their Plastic free communities campaign.

I was pleased to see so many people turn out in the glorious sunshine and Perranporth Beach was looking at its glorious best. I was pleased to catch up with the lovely HugoTagholm who heads up the team at SAS based at St Agnes just along the coast. Most of the plastic on the North coast comes in the form of nurdles or microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic deposited on the high tide line.

Picking them up is quite time consuming and backbreaking, the best way is to sit down and sieve the sand. We managed to collect a small carrier bag and thoroughly enjoyed being out on the beach today.

Day Sixteen Today well the afternoon session was rather unplanned! I had expected to meet up with James Mustoe and members of 3 Bays Wildlife group at Portmellon near Mevagissey but I was too late finishing at Perranporth and missed them.

On the way home I passed Gypsy Lane and thought that last time I cleaned it 12 months ago I picked up over 100 dog poo bags - so I decided to walk it again and see if anything had changed since the installation of a dog poo bin.

The lane links Tregorrick and Asda in St Austell and runs along the back of a large new housing estate. As 1 in 3 households now owns a dog, not only does it put pressure on well trodden paths and fields close by but hugely increases the likelihood of dog fouling or abandoned poo bags. I am very pleased to say I only picked up 2 poo bags but a black bin full of other litter dropped by humans, mostly food packaging again and bottles and cans.

The wild flowers were starting to bloom - primroses, bluebells, celandines, dandelions and I couldn’t help feeling sad seeing them surrounded by discarded plastic and thinking how unlucky they were to have had a village of humans move in next door.

Day Seventeen Today of my #GBSpringClean was a random stop in a lay-by between Truro and Falmouth. This particular one has a seasonal food shack so I was fairly sure there would be a deal of litter. Also I’ve found that lay-bys which are screened from the road by trees are often worse as nobody can see people abandon their rubbish!

In 5 minutes I collected a carrier bag of various mixed plastics, yet again and my first condom (linked to the tree screening?)

I’m sure the occupants of cars parked in the lay-by were bemused to see a random granny drive in, grab her litter kit out of the boot and clear the lane, take some photos and drive off again 5 minutes later! Supernan.

Day Eightneen Today of my #GBSpringClean found me on what I consider to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - Porthcurno. It has deep, pristine golden sand and the sea is a stunning turquoise framed by jagged granite cliffs.

I had taken my grandchildren to a story telling show at The Minack so combined it with some time on the beach to picnic, play and beach clean. Whilst the children were busy dam building in the stream I did a 20 minute beachclean along the high water mark (HWM) and found some tiny microplastics, fishing rope and a newcomer to me, a spiked black cylinder which I learned yesterday at the Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition meeting is used

by Holiday Parks with private sewage systems to break up the poo.

This effluent is spread on farmers fields and duly deposits these little beauties which get washed into streams and out to sea.

The most disappointing find I had at this stunning place were 3 dog poo bags on the path. There are 3 dog poo bins at the car park end of this path. Who does this? Why bother to pick up and wrap the poo, then leave it encased in plastic to deface the countryside and pollute the oceans?

Incredulous. Makes me ashamed to be human.

Day Nineteen Today a #GBSpringClean in Porthcurno car park. Someone had dumped the entire contents of their car rubbish between the recycling bins and litter bins. No words, just anger at the crass behaviour and defiling of an otherwise beautiful spot.

The kids and I cleared it up.

Day Twenty Today a #GBSpringClean in Charlestown Village walking my grandchildren home from nursery. Equipped with a carrier bag and litter picker we walked through the churchyard, along Church road and down to the park to fill our bag with litter which comprised beer cans, plastic drink bottles, sweet wrappers, coffee cups, straws, crisp packets and other small plastic items.

People gave us the thumbs up as the children are cute but no offers of help so far. Such a short distance to collect this much most of which was in the playing field!!

Day Twenty-One Today a #GBSpringClean with Plastic Free St. Austell clearing litter in the streets from the Coop to Gover. We all collected half a sack of rubbish in an hour - a collection of casually dropped items on the pavements and gutters, sweet wrappers, cigarettes, cable ties, rubber bands. However in the more out of the way areas near the Viaduct, purposely tipped bags full of indiscriminate items, hub caps, windscreen wipers, garden waste, all of which are collected free of charge by the Council bin men. Why do people do this?

Day Twenty-Two Today on my #GBSpringClean was a #2minutebeachclean at Portmellon near Mevagissey. The beach was looking super clean, it is one that gets washed by the sea up to the road every day so unless there’s a big storm, tends to collect small pieces of plastic in the seaweed.

It looked as if someone had been cleaning the beach before me as the seaweed was disturbed all over the beach.

You will always find small pieces of plastic and fine fishing net and today was no exception. One significant item was a water balloon. Most people have let a balloon go either by accident or intentionally as part of a celebratory balloon release without realising the harm they can inflict on wildlife and pets if ingested.

Surveys of beach litter show that the amount of balloons and balloon pieces found on beaches has tripled in the past 10 years and those balloons can take years to break down.

While some balloons burst, others gradually deflate and fall back to earth where they can have cruel consequences for wildlife.

Dolphins, whales, turtles, and many other marine species, as well as terrestrial animals such as cows, dogs, sheep, tortoises, birds and other animals have all been hurt or killed by balloons.

The animal, unless rescued, will die from the balloon blocking its digestive tract. Unable to take in any nutrients, the animal slowly starves to death. Sea turtles are particularly at risk because they naturally prey on jellies and balloons can easily be mistaken for this prey. Wildlife of all kinds can become entangled in a deflated balloon and/or its ribbon, leaving the animal unable to move or eat. Please think twice about marking an event by releasing balloons.

Day Twenty-Three Today on my #GBSpringClean at Trevone near Padstow with Rob and Emily Beach Guardian.

There was a good turnout on the beach so Emily and I followed the footpath into the village and cleaned the pub car park too.

We found the usual culprits - bits of plastic packaging, sweet and crisp packets, bottles, coffee cups, a snack pot, cigarette lighter (and the butts from the cigarettes!) plus many dog poo bags. There were quite a number of so called ‘biodegradable’ dog poo bags. Dog owners seem to think these bags will just disappear into the ground over time so okay to leave behind.

Not so. All they do is break down into smaller and smaller pieces and become micro plastics mixed into soil. Worms will probably ingest small particles and suffer poisoning and digestive problems like other marine creatures who eat plastic by mistake.

A long slow death by starvation. Please put all dog poo bags in the bin.

Emily got really excited when we found a rubbish dump covered in soil which revealed some ancient crisp packets for her collection, one from 1985!

We collected a whole bin bag full in an hour, very bracing in the cold wind but rewarded with beautiful views over the stunning coastline and a cream tea afterwards.

Day Twenty-Four Today on my #GBSpringClean at Pentewan with Surfers Against Sewage and James Mustoe. It was very cold and windy and James had postponed the event but turned out anyway just in case any mad people showed up. I’m pleased to say there were at least 6 of us prepared to take the extreme weather challenge!

The strong easterly winds had driven a lot of litter on shore and it was everywhere along the beach. Larger objects today, bottles, jars, a ships lifebuoy, fishing crate, hubcap as well as a lot of fishing litter both pieces of net and plastic string.

It was a real challenge to get items into the sack as the wind was whisking them away and taking photos juggling all the gear and gloves was time consuming!

It was interesting to have such a wide ranging collection of noteworthy problem items in one clean ranging from a cellophane bouquet minus the flowers, a balloon and plastic ribbon and a 4 can plastic holder.

An hour was enough today and I was so pleased to be back home in the warm with a hot cup of coffee to thaw me out.

Day Twenty-Five Today the #GBSpringClean was a quick 2 Minute Beach Clean on West beach Charlestown Village In freezing cold easterly winds.

The waves have been beating up the harbour for days with spray crashing over the walls relentlessly.

This has stirred up debris on the sea bed and I’ve been finding a lot more large pieces of litter than normal.

Today’s top interesting find was a polystyrene float with a colony of goose barnacles attached. They are so pretty and sad in 2 ways - one they were dead when I found them on the shore and two because attaching to this man made toxic chemical substance was sure to be poisoning them.

There were lots of pieces of net and random pieces of plastic and a dead gannet- always surprised how big they are up close with a savage beak designed to spear fish as they make their magnificent high speed dives when fishing.

On the way home I picked up a pair of soleless trainers which had been on the street for days, a pile of cigarette ends in the drain gulley and a can and a glass squeezed behind a drainpipe.

Careful littering anyone???

Day Twenty-Six Today on my #GBSpringClean on the main beach Charlestown Village and was meant to be a quick clean before work. I found quite a bit of debris in 5 minutes on the beach and in the seaweed, plenty of broken bits of plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, a couple of shotgun cartridges and bits of plastic fishing net plus 2 balloon ends with ribbon and a segment from a crab bucket.

Met up with the children from Naturally Learning and chatted to them about my finds then HeadstartKernow with Three Bays Wildlife Group who asked me to stop so they had some plastic to pick up! I showed them my finds too and spent some time talking about the plastic problem.

Great to get a chance to talk to these youngsters who will in 30 years time be facing the prospect of a sea with more plastic than fish in it unless we act now.

Day Twenty-Seven Today on my #GBSpringClean marked the first outing of the Charlestown Clean Up group who are going to meet once a month to tackle litter in our parish. We were supported by Clean Cornwall who supplied all the litter picking kit and organised to collect the bags of rubbish we collected. A big thank you to them for their support.

Two Parish Councillors joined us today which was very heartening. We split into 2 groups and one concentrated on the village above the harbour going out to St Paul’s church, the other did the lower harbour and coast path to Carlyon Bay and round to the church.

We found the coast path up from the village littered with full poo bags and 7 piles of dog poo lying on the path. An area half way up the hill was covered with glass and plastic bottles as if left from a party and full bags had to be carried back down to the quay. Litter lined the hedgerows along Beach Road and somebody was decorating the bushes with dog poo bags.

Yukkk!!!’

The jewel in the crown today was the area of woodland alongside St Paul’s church hall. It was filthy at the roadside end and we just gave up counting the poo bags as there were sooooooo many!

Passers by kept thanking us and asking ‘Who does this?’

Please let me know if you know???

Thanks to everyone who helped

Day Twenty-Eight Today my #GBSpringClean was in glorious sunshine Charlestown Village High Spring tides meant that it was possible to walk from beach to beach on the sand. There was very little debris on either beach today but I found one very nasty item that could cause injury to people or wildlife- an abandoned fishing line complete with hooks lying just beyond the harbour wall.

This is a very popular place with fishermen and I’m sure this line had become entangled in seaweed and cut free. Unfortunately it included a lead weight, 4 large barbed fishing hooks and a long length of plastic fishing line. I walked into the line and was able to trace the length of it but it took some 45 minutes to disentangle it from the seaweed without a knife. As I was doing it I was thinking how easy it would be for a bird, turtle, seal or any marine creature to become trapped in it, the line is so strong and almost invisible.

A long slow death would surely follow.

The hooks could also cause a nasty injury to a swimmer or walker in bare feet. So any fishermen reading this, please go back and retrieve your line at low tide or at least let the Harbour Master know so he can!

Day Twenty-Nine

Today my #GBSpringClean was over at Watergate Bay on the north coast with Rob and Emily from Beach Guardian. It was a glorious day and the beach was packed with locals and visitors making the most of the sunny Easter weekend.

Watergate is renowned as being a beach where plastic nurdles and small microplastics can be found deposited in lines by the retreating tide. As there were so many people it was difficult to access too much beach space but we managed to shovel quite a few into the Nurdle Trommel, which is a specialised piece of kit which sieves the sand out and leaves the microplastics behind.

Thanks to Nurdle for supplying this and zlcenergy for sponsoring.

Nurdles are small plastic pellets which, when melted together, are used by industry to make nearly all our plastic products. Nurdles are lost at sea from ships or at port when being handled. Nurdles spilt on land at industrial facilities float off down drains and ultimately, out to sea.

Like other plastics in our sea, nurdles attract and concentrate environmental pollutants like DDT and PCBs to highly toxic levels and are mistaken for prey by many marine animals and seabirds. They enter the food chain and do not go away - they just fragment into smaller and smaller plastic particles. Nurdles are eaten by seabirds and other marine animals who often mistake nurdles for food because they look like fish eggs or small crustaceans. Like other plastic they can get trapped in the animal’s stomach causing ulceration, making them feel full and stopping them eating real food.

As we were working across the beach, several people came to enquire what we were doing and to offer help, it was especially lovely to see the children getting involved. We had a good nurdle haul today and I can’t think of a nicer spot to do it than Watergate Bay in the sunshine.

Day Thirty Today my #GBSpringClean was a walk around Charlestown Village first thing this morning picking up litter. The beaches were spotlessly clean due to high pressure and calm seas not bringing the plastic in on the tide. However, Bank Holiday Easter weekend has brought a large number of visitors to the village and an increase in litter.

Unfortunately the smoking ban means that smokers congregate outside bars and restaurants and stub out their cigarettes in large numbers. I picked up over 100 this morning from outside 4 bars.

Cigarette butts contain many harmful chemicals and any on the floor will be washed into drains straight into the sea. I am trying to persuade bars to provide buckets of sand to discourage stubbing them out.

The rest of my haul was largely casually dropped coffee cups, food containers, plastic bags and crisp packets - we have 6 litter bins around the harbour so no excuse.

Day Thirty-One Today and the last of my litter picks with #GBSpringClean. I cycled to Pentewan last week and was amazed how much litter there was in this beautiful country lane adjoining the sea so today I put my panniers on and set out to clean it up. Most of the litter was food and drink related items casually thrown from car windows, cans,crisp packets, sweet wrappers, plastic bottles and takeaway food packaging.

I have realised that in my area, sites within 5-15 minutes of takeaway food outlets have the most waste. There seems to be a culture of eating whilst driving then throwing the packaging out of the window. Who does this? We have free waste collection, just take it home please.

31 days of litter picking, sometimes it has been difficult to fit in every day but one thing for sure I am guaranteed to find some wherever I go! It would be wonderful if everyone took some responsibility for picking it up, a bin is never far away and it would mean that tons of waste, especially plastic would not end up polluting our Oceans and killing marine life.

I will not stop litter picking and beach cleaning, just won’t be writing about it as much.

Action Nan Pat Smith’s Diary of 31 Days of Litter Cleaning #GBSpringClean

Contact us today to get involved and find out more:

hello@finalstrawcornwall.co.uk www.finalstrawcornwall.co.uk @FinalStrawCornwall

@ActionNan

@finalstrawcorn

@action_nan

@thefinalstrawcornwall