Plea to use bins as volunteers battle to keep Sutton on Sea beach clean

The last two years have been described as “horrendous” by the town’s beachcare group, which has filled no fewer than 1,127 bags of litter and marine waste.

Now it is urging residents, visitors and holidaymakers to make a New Year’s resolution for 2025 and use a bin if they have rubbish they need to dispose of.

“The beach is so important to us, “ said Lianne Havell, who runs Sutton on Sea Beachcare with her son, Jordan.

"It’s a vital blue space which helps with being outdoors and is good for people’s mental health.

"But the amount of litter has been horrendous. If only people could learn to use a bin.

"A lot of people are very good and do just that. But sadly, there are an awful many who don’t.

"It would be nice to think that, by the end of this year, we have lower figures, rather than higher.”

Those figures reveal that the litter-picking group completed 235 beach-cleans during 2024 and removed 527 full bags of rubbish, following on from 600 the previous year.

The 2024 bags included 2,423 plastic bottles, 2,298 cans and 817 glass bottles, equating to an estimated 233 kilograms of discarded drinks containers.

Lianne, who founded the group in 2016, revealed that her volunteers had also come across an excessive amount of marine-related litter, such as pieces of rope, netting, crab pots and fishing line, probably washed up during heavy storms.

Beachcare is so committed to keeping the town’s beach clean and maintaining its environmental Blue Flag status that it goes out most days to clear rubbish.

During 2024, it also spread its message via its Facebook group, at local community events and in appearances on TV and radio programmes.

What’s more, when the litter-pickers found dumped toys on the beach, they tried to recycle and rehome them, cleaning them up and offering them to local preschools and nurseries.

"Cleaning the beach gives us a feeling of pride because it helps to attract people coming back to visit our town,” said Lianne.

"Litter entering the sea also causes great harm to ecosystems. A clean beach is a happy beach!”