The Great Dorset Beach Clean and The Autumn Beach Clean - 2009

Despite the bad weather and having to compete with the London Marathon the 21st Great Dorset Beach Clean attracted 772 volunteers on the day, 150 of them children. The beaches involved stretched over 27 beaches from Lyme Bay in West Dorset to Friar's Cliff in Christchurch.

Please see our next great Dorset beach clean for 2010.

Although the changeable weather obviously deterred some people from coming on the beaches we had more children this year than in previous years. 727 bags of rubbish were collected of which 75 bags of plastic bottles were recycled by the councils. A detailed list of beach statistics [633kb] [PDF] (opens in a new window) is available to download. Some odd items [5Mb] [PDF] (opens in a new window) were found including 3 spent bullets and cod tags, from commercial fishing at Worbarrow Bay, polystyrene fish boxes, a mattress, plastic chair, a pair of brand new shoes. Some of the beaches took part in a survey to analyse what rubbish [805kb] [PDF] (opens in a new window) was being collected.

A new event was organised in Autumn 2009 by the Coastal Ranger Team to focus on the identification of the different types of rubbish found on our beaches. Using Chesil Beach as an example plastic stood out above all other materials [805kb] [PDF] (opens in a new window) as the most frequently collected substance. In our survey 3870 pieces of plastic were collected, out of which 2181 were bits of rope and 680 were plastic caps or lids. Significantly 3773 plastic bottles were collected from 26 beaches. It is often difficult to evaluate whether the items found on a beach have come from visitors dropping rubbish, whether the bad weather had blown up the litter or whether the debris is waterborne, from either the sea or washed down in rivers. Autumn collections were able to identify where many containers originated from and a number had indeed come from shipping. Examples identified included: France, Turkey and the Middle East. The results collected from these survey's carried out contribute to the Marine Conservation Society's national campaign to stop littering our oceans.

Well done and a huge thank you to all our volunteers [5Mb] [PDF] (opens in a new window). Both the Great Dorset Beach Clean and the Autumn Beach Clean for 2009 have been a great success all thanks to your involvement. If you would like to help Dorset Countryside on either of our Beach Cleans', please contact the Coastal Ranger, Jenny Penney.