4 Tons of Plastic

[Dorrie]

4 Tons. That's the amount of plastic that has been picked up THIS YEAR by Caithness Beach Cleans.

We have just reached 12.5 Tons and we have not been going for a year yet, but 4 Tons this year. It makes you think.

We don't organise beach cleans, but we do give you scales to anyone who goes for a beach walk and picks up plastic, we only ask that you weigh the plastic you pick up and send a photo to the Facebook group. That is how we KNOW how much plastic we are picking up.

Today, 10 of the group met up for a picnic on Keiss Castle beach, whilst there we also picked up plastic, 970.3lbs of it. A lot of it was old plastic and hopefully the beach will stay clean for a while.

There are many benefits to picking up plastic, one, you are out for a wonderful walk in the fresh air (sometimes very fresh), two, you can lose weight and become fitter (I certainly have), three, you are helping the environment. Basically it's all good. Everyone goes out when suits them, so you commit to nothing, except sending in a photograph of what you pick up.

Some people pick up just 3 pieces of plastic and they think that's not enough to join the group, but if you put those 3 bits in a bag, and add the next 3 bits, you soon have a lb or kg to add to the total.

We now have great statistics of what has been picked up over the last year. You can see those statistics on the group, every now and then we add the updated file. For example 3.5 Tons have been removed from Dunnet over the last year.

Please consider removing plastics from the environment, don't throw it out of your cars or on the ground. Sadly a lot of people do that.

We would love to meet you on a beach some time.

:)

[Goodfellers]

That's brilliant, well done.

I've been picking up buckets, tyres, old lobster pots, rope and general plastic from my local secluded beach. It's only a smallish pile so far. Who do you contact to get it removed from the beach when the pile is big enough?

There is only one problem with doing this though, last summer a few motorhomes 'discovered' this beach and added bags of 'household' waste to the 'beach' pile! Had to take the car down and remove it and add to my bin. Really made me cross.

Got to say, a few others (locals) add to the pile when out walking, so that's good news.

[Dorrie]

That's great. Why not join the group and I can arrange to have it removed whenever the pile is big enough? We do that at Murkle. Whenever I am told that the pile is in danger of being blown away I notify the council and they come and remove it. :) Very annoying when household waste is left. That's not something the group can get rid of easily. :(
So glad that others are picking up. :)

[Goodfellers]

35163 Nice clean beach, thanks to all who pick up marine debris.

[Fulmar]

We need the same along nearly every road. When I walk and cycle I pick up other people's cans and bottles- been doing it for years now, the stuff is everywhere.

[Dorrie]

I know, it's awful. There is a Keep Scotland Tidy clean coming up, and one of our group has registered for it. A lot of us are going to do it and just do any roads we want then submit the amount to our group and the organising member will submit the total to the Keep Scotland Tidy website. :)

Last year my husband picked up at the bottom of our road. As well as loads of plastic bottles etc., he picked up two xmas trees, one complete with lights and decorations. What are people thinking of!