Volunteers Brave the Weather for a Trial Clean up
12 hardy volunteers from the O N US beach cleaning group battled against the weather before Christmas to assist with a trial to recycle plastic debris on our shores.
A plan to remove plastic debris from a remote bay by boat was prevented by strong winds so the volunteers walked out to Clanghie Bay to drag the litter across rough terrain to Port Logan. After a morning of hard work filling a skip, the volunteers retired to the village hall for well-earned refreshments.
The trial is part of the SCRAPbook Project (Scottish Coastal Rubbish Aerial Photography) which has identified litter in hard to reach bays as a particular problem that needs to be tackled on the Galloway coast. A skip full of hard plastics collected on the beach will be taken to Dumfries to be sorted and assessed to find out how much of it is suitable for recycling. The trial is a collaboration between Solway Firth Partnership, O N US beach cleaning group, Dumfries and Galloway Council, RPC bpi recycled products and Armstrong Waste Management Ltd. It is intended that the trial will help find a practical solution of what to do with plastic on our beaches.
The beach clean established that the majority of large items on our beaches are hard plastics that can be recycled. Items collected ranged from drinks bottles to large barrels and even included a plastic rocking horse! The clean up only tackled one small gully and there is much more to be removed. On future clean ups where removal of debris by boat is not an option then it is hoped that land owners and tenant farmers might help transport the plastic from the coast to the nearest access for skip lorries.
The clean up continues into 2019 with another beach clean set for 20 January. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/onussws/