Beach rubbish hits record, with litter every 52cm

RECORD levels of litter on Britain’s beaches are "preventable" and are utterly "unacceptable", environmental campaigners have claimed, after it emerged that the amount of rubbish despoiling our coastline has risen by over 80 per cent in ten years.

The warning comes as the Marine Conservation Society publishes the Beachwatch 2004 report, giving results from the UK’s biggest-ever beach clean and litter survey.

Carried out last September, the operation records the highest levels of plastic litter since the survey began in 1993, and notes an increase in overall litter levels by 82 per cent in the past decade.

More beaches were included in this year’s survey than ever before, with an average of one piece of litter recorded for every 52cm (20in) of beach examined.

More than 3,000 volunteers helped survey 269 beaches covering 145km of UK coast.

In Scotland over the same period, around 700 volunteers checked 46 beaches.

They included Portobello West in Edinburgh, Broughty Ferry in Dundee, Burntisland in Fife, Barassie in Ayrshire, Carnoustie in Angus, East Beach in Lossiemouth and Lunderston Bay in Inverclyde.