VOLUNTEERS Collect 7,500 Items Of Litter At Lunderston Bay

A RECORD number of volunteers helped to turn the tide on marine litter at Lunderston Bay at the weekend, picking up more than 7,500 items. Coast and country nature blogger David Carnduff joined them.

What motivates people to leave their warm houses on a freezing Saturday morning and spend two hours on a beach with drizzle adding to the January chill? The answer, of course, is concern for the environment and a wish to remove the scourge of plastic debris from the shore.

Lunderston Bay was the venue for this latest beach clean organised by Clyde Muirshiel Park rangers in conjunction with environmental campaigner Kathleen McMillan, a sea champion with the Marine Conservation Society.

A total of 86 hardy souls, myself included, armed with litter pickers and bin bags, scoured the beach for the offending material which was there in abundance — a clear indication that our beloved Clyde is no different from seas worldwide when it comes to plastic pollution.

It soon became apparent that the beach was contaminated with all the usual suspects –- bottles and containers, straws, packaging, string, rope, wet wipes . . . the list goes on. And, of course, cotton buds — nearly 2,500 of them. It’s easy to understand why 86 people — a record number for a Lunderston clean-up — were prepared to devote their Saturday morning to the shoreline clean-up.

During 2017, the shocking reality of plastic’s detrimental impact on the oceans and marine life was thrust home in a variety of ways. A picture of a seahorse with its tail wrapped round a cotton bud went viral on Facebook to illustrate the unfolding sub-sea tragedy caused by humanity’s detritus. Then, Sir David Attenborough’s powerful and visually stunning series, The Blue Planet, ended with a dire warning about plastic’s affect on marine life. It was, in effect, a wake-up call to the world.

However, as we enter 2018, there are grounds for optimism, with the Scottish and UK governments announcing policies to address what Prime Minister Theresa May called “one of the great environmental scourges of our time”.

The Scottish Government announced its intention to ban the sale and manufacture of plastic-stemmed cotton buds, and Kate Forbes MSP recently launched her ‘Final Straw’ campaign, calling on businesses and consumers to commit to stop using disposable plastic straws and for governments to ban their use.

Kathlenn McMillan

Meanwhile, at local level, Kathleen is pushing ahead with her own drive to eliminate plastic straws from Inverclyde and is urging schools to help her get the message across. Kathleen will gladly give a talk, free of charge, to any school keen to enlist their support.

Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan, who joined in the beach clean, has also pledged support for Kathleen’s initiative. He said: “I have witnessed the plastic pollution washed up at Lunderston Bay.

“Since the 5p levy on plastic bags was introduced there has been a dramatic reduction in the number being discarded but plastic cotton buds and straws remain a problem. Only by taking positive action will we resolve this issue.”

All items picked from the beach during the January clean-up were counted and logged and details were sent to the Marine Conservation Society. In total, 37 bags containing 7,584 items and weighing 77kg, were filled on the morning of the clean-up by the volunteers. This was an admirable effort by Inverclyde’s tideline troopers.

Some of the clean-up volunteers with rangers John MacLean and Mike Holcombe