HELPING TO CLEAN UP OUR COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE
Today, I'm reviewing a beach clean bag from www.beachcleanbag.co.uk which I tested out on at breezy afternoon on Bossington beach in Porlock Bay.
The bag is produced in a heavyweight woven polypropylene fabric making it one of the safest plastics to use and manufactured in the UK. The large bag is ideal for litter picks, especially where there is plenty of rubbish to collect. The first advantage I found was where starting my beach clean on a windy location, a plastic sack is often difficult to use and when using a hoop, I sometimes find the wind can blow lightweight items e.g. crisp packets out of the sack. This bag has the advantage of having velcro fixings and as you can see in the centre picture, you can restrict the opening. I often find fishing line tangled up in huge clumps of seaweed and have to put my litter picking equipment down to remove the line from the seaweed whereas using this bag, I only have to tuck the litter picker under my arm to do it and don't need to worry about litter coming out of the bag. The other big advantage of this bag is the shoulder strap which takes the strain off the arm when carrying large amounts of litter. I often do beach cleans where I find large items which are difficult to carry along with a sack or two of rubbish so the shoulder strap makes this much easier. There are small straps on either side of the bag to carry it instead of using the shoulder strap and for lifting the bag into the boot of the car. I would definately recommend this bag to anyone out on litter picks and intending sorting the litter for recycling afterwards. The price of the bag is around £14.00 from Amazon but can be ordered direct for groups looking for a quantity discount from as little as £8.70 each.
0 Comments
Believe it or not, litter picks are quite a social thing to do. Although I do the majority litter picks alone, it might surprise you how many people start up a conversation. Often, people will say "thank you" or ask how much I've collected and a conversation will go on from there. I was on the beach one morning and a visitor said hello while out with her spaniel puppy. I saw her most mornings and on her last day, she walked a short stretch of beach as I litter picked and at first didn't spot things I was picking up but it wasn't long before she saw them too! After a few hundred metres, she turned to head back but commented how therapeutic it was and she decided she would start doing it when she returned home. Another recruit!
While out walking the moors, people greet each other as they pass by whilst walking in urban areas, people don't or do they? On a recent visit to North London, I had a coffee at Paliament Hill Fields and then took a walk on Hampstead Heath as it was such a beautiful morning. I walked for around an hour and passed many people walking their dogs, running or like me having a stroll. I think 2 people said good morning. The following morning, I did the same thing but this time, I took my litter picking equipment as I had seen plastic bottles, food packaging etc from picnics and filled a sack in around 45 minutes. I lost count of how many people said good morning and had a couple of conversations about litter. It was very encouraging. After I finished there, I carried on litter picking during a walk over to Belsize Park where I had arranged to meet up with Bob (Robert Stephenson-Padron) (Bob) who has recently been awarded the OBE for services to social care. Bob is the driving force behind Belsize Village which has been transformed from what used to be rather untidy with empty businesses but is now home to 'London's First Streatery' which is now full of thriving businesses and people being able to sit and enjoy food and drink in a beautiful setting with planters full of colour and a litter free area thanks to the hard work of owners and residents volunteering their time each day to keep it looking so good. This is a fine example of how other towns and businesses could encourage more footfall back into their community. You can find out more about this at: www.belsizevillage.org.uk
Although I've been quiet on here lately, I've not stopped my litter picks and beach cleans, finding more vintage litter which you see in a couple of photos above. One is a St. Michael Strawberry Yogurt pot priced at 6p from around 1980 which was washed up on Blue Anchor beach one morning last week. The other one is more unusual. In 1976, Horlicks Dairies which had depots across Somerset, decided it would be a good idea to change from glass bottles of milk to plastic sachets. This would allow shops to be able to store all of the milk in the fridge rather than keeping what bottles didn't fit in, out in the warmth of the hot summer. The sachet fitted into a plastic jug and then you would cut the corner off and pour. I was working at the shop on Dunster Beach at the time people found it difficult to cope with and if they didn't have the jug, the milk went everywhere! However, I recall one morning when we received our delivery of around 300 pints and stacked it in the fridge. About an hour later, there seemed to be a leak somewhere before customers began coming in saying they had lost their milk in the fridge. By lunchtime, there was milk pouring out of the shop fridge as all the bags gradually came apart due a a fault on the seal meaning thousands upon thousands of pints of milk across Somerset went to waste. I'm pleased to say that it wasn't long before Horlicks Dairies returned to the returnable glass bottle saving what could have been millions of plastic milk bags around in our environment. Anyway, I found this milk bag last week, again washed in on the tide, on the beach between Dunster Beach and Minehead. As you can see, the bag has not broken down in the sea at all in 46 years!
As the header says, it's not all about litter. One morning last week, when the weather was breaking new records with temperatures above 40c in some parts of the country, I was doing a beach clean before it was too hot. I started at Blue Anchor and followed the tide line, past Dunster Beach and planning going as far as Minehead. However, halfway along the coast of the golf course, I spotted a Common Gull on the pebbles. It's unusual to see this so I went towards it which panicked it as it tried to fly off but it just stumbled on the pebbles. I calmed it down and eventually it let me pick it up. I walked back to Dunster Beach with it and called in to see the site manager Steve who gave me a box to put the gull in and take to the vet. I gave it some water which it drunk plenty of and carried it back to my car at Blue Anchor. It went off to the vet but sadly, it didn't survive as it had a broken leg but mainly because it was so dehydrated having been stranded on the pebbles, probably for at least 8 hours since the last high tide. At least it wasn't left in the hot sun to die or perhaps attacked by other birds or a dog. The other photo shows two numbered rings from the remains of a dead racing pigeon I found washed up on the shore near Blue Anchor last week. I removed the rings and when I got home, I logged the details and got the owner's mobile phone number so sent him the sad news on a text. I had a lovely message back thanking me for letting him know what had happened. The pigeon had been released in St. Malo, France last year so the owner was pleased I had let him know what had happened to it. I am out doing a beach clean in West Somerset most mornings and with the summer weather with us and more people around, I often get people stopping to come and talk saying how grateful they are to me for making a difference which makes it even more worthwhile! |
AuthorBorn in West Somerset, I have always been proud of where I live and want everyone else to enjoy it too! Archives
September 2022
Categories |