The clean up along Rother’s beaches has been taking place since early November when millions of tiny plastic bio beads were released into the sea from Southern Water’s wastewater treatment plant. The beads washed up in Camber Sands and at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve causing a huge amount of pollution and concern for wildlife. While this beach clean up was ongoing, a number of containers fell overboard from three container ships in the Channel – the contents washing onto the coast from the Isle of Wight to East Sussex and beyond.
Residents and local community groups, supported by Rother District Council, responded quickly. All along the coast they’ve been painstakingly collecting everything from bananas, onions, avocados to oven chips and foam insulating packaging. One poor seal was found dead wrapped in a plastic onion sack.
The environmental group Strandliners has been one of the groups leading the clean up. “The recent container spills off Hampshire, Sussex and Kent quickly galvanised the spirit of community groups and much has been bagged and binned,” said Andy Dinsdale, Executive Director of Strandliners. “A fantastic response, but how much is still out there? We need to continue, but the debris is being washed back out to sea. It’s being broken up into smaller pieces, and all the time a hazard to marine life.”
Thank you to everyone who has been out to keep our beaches beautiful.