Plastic Free Seaford

This year we have seen some great support from the local community in helping us protect our coastline and spread awareness of our plastic free objectives. It’s been great to meet people from all walks of life, both young and old, who have been willing to give up their time to help look after our local environment.

This year we saw beach cleans return after a pause in March, with Darren Evans, co-founder of ‘The Green Runners’ taking on the coordination. We would like to say a huge thankyou to everyone that has come along and cleaned up the beach, including our biggest ever attendance of 103 in July when we collaborated with SCIP during their Beacon Show. This year we have removed 130 kg of rubbish from the beach, and recycled 294 kg. All hard beach clean plastics and commercial waste is now sent to MYReFactory via the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme (ANLRS) to be recycled and turned into useful products.

In July we ran a Plastic Free bingo board at the SEA Climate Hub and collected pledges from members of the public for the global Plastic Free July initiative. The Tide café at the Buckle became our latest Plastic Free Business Champion, setting a great example of offering sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics within their business. As part of our work with Surfers Against Sewage we signed and shared the River Pollution petition which has now been presented to Parliament to increase the number of River Bathing Waters around the UK. This will ensure that river water quality is officially monitored for harmful bacteria and viruses, with legal obligations to stop sewage and agricultural pollution. November saw the return of the popular Seaford Bonfire and we worked together along with Seaford Environmental Alliance to raise awareness of the concerns of plastic pollution and curb sales of plastic light up toys that are common with this type of event.

Over the course of the year Fran Chorlton gave various Plastic Free awareness talks to community groups including SCIP, Martello WI and Seaford Probus club and has been working with the Young Mayor on her Keep Up, Bring Your Cup campaign.

Following the passing of Plastic Free Seaford’s founder, Claire Sumners earlier this year we are now looking to raise funds for a memorial on the seafront to continue to inspire, motivate change and raise awareness of plastic pollution in the ocean. Please direct enquiries to plasticfreeseaford.community@gmail.com

Other ways to get involved:

Business owners who want to become a Plastic Free Champion for your local community please get in touch with us for a plastic audit and advice on sustainable alternatives.

We are also looking for regular beach clean volunteers to join the team handing out equipment and sorting the waste found on the beach.

We have spaces available on our steering group which meets 2-3 times a year, with team members required in particular to engage with local schools and community groups.

Come along and meet us at a beach clean – dates opposite. Think re-use, before recycle!