Beach clean ups in Kent

Close your eyes and picture your local beach. What does it look like? Is it beautiful, peaceful, almost surreal? Or do you picture the sad reality of most of our beaches - covered in plastic and rubbish? For quite some time now our oceans and beaches have been neglected and resemble a dumping ground, the worst of it is what you can’t see. In fact, it is estimated that up to 13 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year. This figure is terrifying and will sadly carry on increasing if we don’t do anything about it. 

Beach clean ups are great at helping migrate the problems caused by plastic pollution. They allow like-minded people to get involved and connected with something that is great for the environment and those of us on it. 

You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find a beach that is severely polluted, instead go to your closest beach and take a walk. We can almost guarantee that you will come across rubbish of some sort, whether it’s cigarette butts, plastic bottle tops, fishing nets, lolly sticks etc. 

Why you should get involved in a beach clean up...

• Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species. Getting involved in a beach clean up can help to slow down the effect plastic pollution is having on our species.
• Beach clean ups allow you to protect the areas you love.
• A beach clean up is a fun family day out - anyone and everyone can get involved!
• A great social gathering and a chance to meet like-minded people.
• Beach clean ups have seen major success over the past few years. For example, SAS (Surfers Against Sewage) have managed to remove more than 3,167kg of plastic pollution in the South East  this year alone - a phenomenal amount.

How do I get involved with a beach clean up?

Getting involved is easy! There are lots of local, voluntary beach clean up groups on the Kent coast, many of which have FaceBook pages that you can join. Here are a few beach clean up groups and pages we found in Kent:

• Broadstairs Town Team - They post regular events and town clean ups on their FaceBook page. 
• Million Mile Clean - Million Mile Clean hosts a lot of beach and river clean ups all across the country. Their upcoming Kent river clean up is based in Tonbridge, on the 10th October at 10am and involves a kayak! Please note, the minimum age to participate is 10.
• Rise Up Clean Up - Margate - If you join their FaceBook group you can keep up-to-date on when the next beach clean up will take place.

Kent is a beautiful and scenic county, with easy access to amazing beaches, rivers and lakes. Let’s work together to ensure we keep them this way and remove the rubbish trying to interfere! 

Find out more here