Three beaches around Weymouth are amongst those earmarked for The Great Dorset Beach Clean which is back for 2022 taking place over the week of 2nd – 10th April. Coinciding with the first weekend of the Easter school holiday, Litter Free Dorset are excited to announce this 32nd annual Great Dorset Beach Clean event.
This year will see 16 beach cleans, hosted by local organisations and community groups, take place along the Dorset Coast, from Lyme Regis to Christchurch.
In the Weymouth area Castle Cove, Bowleaze Cove and Ferrybridge are amongst the beaches scheduled for cleaning as per the timetable below.
Sophie Colley, Litter Free Dorset’s Coordinator, said: “Get involved with this year’s Great Dorset Beach Clean to have some fun, meet likeminded people from the community and take part in an Easter litter hunt. Help us clear up our beaches prior to the summer season so we can spread the message that in Dorset we like to keep our beaches clean.”
Last year’s 2021 Great Dorset Beach Clean saw over 300 volunteers take part. There were 19 cleans across the Dorset coast! By working together, we cleared 165 bags of rubbish including tyres, buried rusty lobster pots, tents, oil drums and a gazebo from Dorset’s beaches.
Cleaning up our beautiful coastline will not only prevent new materials from entering our marine environment but also remove materials and degrading plastics washed ashore, that may have been in the sea for many years. Overtime plastics break up into lots of smaller pieces, harder to remove from the marine environment. While larger littered items can entrap and entangle marine life, smaller pieces can be easily ingested, also causing harm. So, by taking part in this year’s Great Dorset Beach Clean, you’ll be working alongside other brilliant volunteers to extract and prevent litter from entering/returning into our oceans, positively impacting our local bathing water quality and the marine life within it.
Lizzie Prior, Beachwatch Manager at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “The Great Dorset Beach Clean is a fantastic project, and we’re really pleased to be involved in this year’s events. We’ll be hosting a beach clean and litter survey for volunteers on 5th April. The data our volunteers collect has a direct impact on our work at the Marine Conservation Society; it helped us to push for plastic bag charges across the UK and we’ve since seen numbers of bags on beaches consistently drop. From a high of 13 on average in 2013, to just three per 100 metres in 2021. Getting involved in beach cleaning projects is a fantastic opportunity to get outdoors, give back and protect our ocean.”
Want to join in with this year’s Great Dorset Beach Clean? Check out Litter Free Dorset’s social media platforms to stay updated and find a clean near you.
- Facebook – @LitterFreeDorset
- Instagram – @litterfreedorset
- Twitter – @LitterFreeDrst
Spread the litter free message by sharing your clean-up pics on social media. Use the hashtag #GDBC22 and tag @LitterFreeDorset into your photos.
