Recycling The Unrecyclable Helps To Prevent Marine Litter Going To Landfill

Local News

It’s a shocking statistic that 8 million items of litter are dumped in the world’s oceans every day. 20 000 tons annually in the North Sea alone. Plastics make up 75% of litter in our oceans and each year 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die from ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic globally.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has lead a number of projects to help remove litter from the North Sea. It’s Waves of Waste volunteer community runs beach cleans up and down Yorkshire’s coastline. Taking advantage of the tidal window to scour the beaches for all kinds of harmful litter. Details from the collection are recorded such as weight and the kinds of litter found so that we can inform our work in campaigning for cleaner seas. Fishing for Litter is another scheme we helped to set up in partnership with local fishermen whom frequently catch litter within their gear, bags and bins are provided to hep fishermen to remove the litter they collect, preventing harm to wildlife and also their fishing gear.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Fisheries & Wildlife Officer Laura Welton said: “One of the sad issues surrounding marine litter is that more often than not it cannot be recycled via normal recycling points due to the saltwater and sand, so the litter collected is sent to landfill. However the Trust have recently began working with TerraCycle who specialise in recycling the unrecyclable. TerraCycle has established a new scheme to recycle ridged plastics collected from the Trust’s beach cleans.”
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has lots of beach cleans coming up, visit www.ywt.org.uk/whats-on for all the details. It’s a great chance to get out for a walk along Yorkshire’s wonderful coast, meet new people and do something wonderful for wildlife.
• Filey – Sat, 11/03/2017 – 10:00am – 12:00pm
• North Bridlington – Sat, 18/03/2017 – 10:30am – 12:30pm
•  South Landing, Flamborough – Sun, 19/03/2017 – 11:00am – 1:00pm
• North Bridlington – Sat, 13/05/2017 – 10:30am – 12:30pm

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