Britain’s beaches are now dirtier than in 2016 after conservationists reported a surge in litter.
An average of 718 pieces of rubbish were picked up for every 100 metres of beach in this year in the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) annual beach clean-up, a 10 per cent rise from 2016.
The Great British Beach Clean, made up of nearly 7,000 volunteers, found that food and drink litter accounted for up to 20 per cent of all rubbish on beaches. This included drinks cups, plastic cutlery, sandwich packets and lolly sticks, making single-use plastic the most common type of litter.
The beaches in the South East of England were found to be the dirtiest, with over 1,000 items of litter per 100m.
The Channel Islands saw the lowest litter density, with 253 items per 100m. But the region had the biggest increase of rubbish, up 26 per cent from 2016.
To tackle the litter problem, the MCS has called for a levy on free-of-charge single-use items such as straws, stirrers and lids that are handed out in their millions from food and drinks businesses.
"The 5p single-use carrier bag charge has made a massive difference to the number of plastic bags entering our seas,” Lizzie Prior, MCS Beach and River Clean Project Officer, told Countryfile.
“If a levy was placed on single use plastic such as straws, stirrers, cutlery, cups and cup lids, we're confident that we'd find fewer of these items on our beaches.”
Plastic bags, which used to make up 28 per cent of beach litter, now account for just six per cent of it thanks to the levy.
But MCS said in this year alone there has been a 94 per cent increase in the amount of wet wipes litter, which wash up on beaches after they are flushed down toilets.
