Christmas comes early in Cramond Beach clean-up

A PLASTIC Christmas tree, disposable barbecues and the remains of an armchair were among piles of rubbish recovered from Cramond Beach during a major clean-up.

Around 50 volunteers armed with litter pickers and gloves collected and recorded a total of 2578 pieces of litter, weighing 37.5kg, across a 100m stretch of the popular beach.

More than 300 beaches across the UK took part in the Marine Conservation Society's (MCS) annual beach litter survey at the weekend, including Portobello, Milsey Bay in North Berwick, Gullane Bents and Gosford Bay at Longniddry.

A silk flower, roofing felt, horse hair stuffing from a sofa, a safety suit and a mobile phone SIM card were among some of the more unusual items picked up during the two-hour clean on Saturday morning.

The remains of an armchair were also discovered just outside the survey area, but even that wasn't enough to surprise Scottish Conservation Manager of the MCS, Calum Duncan.

He said: "This was survey number 41 at Cramond since September 2000 and we have seen it all on the beach during that time, from false teeth and plastic toys, to underwear and Tamagotchi toys.

"Once again the Firth of Forth has revealed how much rubbish people dump and get rid of irresponsibly. Some of it is dumped on the beach and some of it is washed up."

The biggest proportion of rubbish sourced - over 18 per cent - was sewage-related debris, which includes sanitary products, condoms, nappies and wet wipes. It was the second highest amount of sewage-related debris - 482 items - collected since the survey started 10 years ago, with the largest amount recorded during the first survey in September 2000.

"That really reinforces the message that the public need to bin and bag their sanitary waste," added Mr Duncan.

Cramond Beach is cleaned and surveyed by volunteers four times a year with the data gathered helping to form a snapshot of the state of marine and beach litter. After the survey, a wider clean of the beach is carried out.

Other items found during the most recent clean were pieces of plastic, drink cans, glass, rubber and wood.

Mr Duncan said: "There's not really any trend to the amount of rubbish found, it just goes up and down depending on a number of factors - a combination of what the weather has been like, how busy the beach has been in terms of visitors, how much seaweed there is on the beach that the rubbish has got tangled up in, and the last time the beach was cleaned by the council."