"Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans." (OSPAR,2009)
Solva is pretty well known for being a clean harbour and beach area. We're lucky here that you don't find as much sea trash washing up and getting caught by the waters edge and amongst the sea weed as most large open west facing shores. That being said, If you look hard enough, sadly you will always find something that's not supposed to be there. Plastics in the sea do not break DOWN but actually break UP in to smaller and smaller micro-plastic pieces, and ghost nets and finishing lines are becoming a more common occurrence. Sadly, rubbish is everywhere along our coastline."There may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and micro-plastic pieces floating in the open ocean. Weighing up to 269,000 tonnes." (ERIKSON, 2014)
If you know MamGu's, you know sustainability and environmental issues are close to our hearts (just as much as a warm welsh cake fresh off the griddle!) So on Saturday 2nd July, we teamed up with our local Surfers Against Sewage representatives Jake and Jordan, set up a gazebo on Solva Harbour green and hosted our first ever MamGu's Beach Clean!
Although all week the weather forecast was threatening to rain, miraculously the clouds parted and the sun shined bright all day for us. An incredible 50+ of you of all ages turned up to help us clean the beach at low tide. Some of you regular litter pickers with Eco Dewi, armed with your own litter pickers, and some families with children joining for the education from SAS and their first ever beach clean.
We found everything from large items such as drinks bottles and cans, crisp packets, cigarette lighters and rope, down to lots and lots of broken up tiny pieces of plastic buried in the sand. Some of the more interesting finds included:
- Plastic crabbing lines
- Large nets/sacks.
- An old metal mooring post & rope (we think!)
- Broken plastic toy spade
Speaking to Jake and Jordan, we discussed how we could have avoided having these items appear in sea.
- Plastic single use drinks bottle - Use a steel reusable bottle.
- Plastic crabbing line - Wood & hessian alternatives are now available.
- Broken toy spade - bring your rubbish home, even try to repurpose it into something new!
Zero plastic crabbing lines available from Porthclais Kiosk
"Plastic production has been forecast to grow by 60% by 2030 and to treble by 2050." (Center for International Environmental Law, 2019)
If you would like to join in with another Pembrokeshire Beach Clean we highly recommend getting in touch with our friends at Eco Dewi, who organise regular cleans all over the county and are definitely our local environment awareness champions! Click here.
If you'd like to learn more about Surfers Against Sewage and their fight to end pollution in our seas and rivers, click here.
Hope to see you all soon in Solva for a welsh cake and a coffee!
[ Plastic pollution facts and stats: https://www.sas.org.uk/our-work/plastic-pollution/plastic-pollution-facts-figures/ ]
