This weekend Clean Coasts is asking people around Ireland to help raise awareness about the danger of broken glass on the beach and related injuries.
At the start of the summer, Clean Coasts launched their Enjoy And Protect campaign, asking people to enjoy and celebrate our stunning coastline, beautiful beaches, epic cliffs and all outdoor areas, but also to protect these natural treasures by taking simple actions, such as giving up single-use plastic items, choosing more sustainable forms of transportation to the coast, or doing a #2minutebeachclean.
This time Clean Coasts is focusing on broken glass on our beaches and glass marine litter items. Broken glass on our beaches is a serious problem on our coasts, with 60% of Clean Coasts followers having seen this type of litter on their local beaches. As a matter of fact, several Clean Coasts volunteers and beachgoers have reported injuries from stepping on pieces of glass.
However, injuries are not the only issue. Marine litter such as broken glass or discarded glass bottles can be a real deterrent for beachgoers. Indeed, almost 90% of Clean Coasts social media followers who took part in our survey said that the presence of glass would put them off returning to that beach in the future.
By taking our glass bottles home with us and recycling or reusing them, we not only protect our coastline from litter but remove a potentially severe injury risk ensuring future visitors can enjoy the coast as much as we did.
To encourage people to help us spread the word about this issue, we have joined forces with ECOSET and Sea Change for a social media competition that will take place from Thursday, 5th August, until Sunday, 8th August. We are offering one lucky follower a reusable wine bottle and tumbler gift set from ECOSET and Sea Change’s Signature Pack of wines. Check out Clean Coasts Instagram (@cleancoasts or www.instagram.com/cleancoasts) for more details.
About Clean Coasts
Clean Coasts is a charity programme, run through the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, which engages communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life. Clean Coasts works with communities to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life. Clean Coasts thrives to create tangible and immediate improvements to Ireland’s coastal environment, involving thousands of volunteers removing large quantities of marine litter from our coastline each year.
Clean Coasts has grown over the years and now includes two main national clean-up drives. Other initiatives include the Green Coast Award, the Love Your Coast Photography competition, the Clean Coasts Roadshows for coastal communities and the Ocean Hero Awards. All these initiatives are aimed at celebrating the beauty of our coast and the efforts of our volunteers across all of Ireland.
Currently, there are over 1400 registered Clean Coasts volunteering groups. There are a variety of group types such as community groups, residents’ associations, tidy towns groups, sports clubs, schools, businesses, universities etc. Clean Coasts organises hundreds of beach clean-ups annually mobilising thousands of volunteers, removing considerable quantities of marine litter from Ireland’s beaches and waterways. Our volunteering has expanded to also include Corporate Volunteering.
About Ecoset
Ecoset have committed to helping keep our coasts clean and plastic free for future generations. With each purchase of one of their water bottles, mugs or tumblers they donate a percentage to Clean Coasts which goes directly to the Clean Coasts grant scheme.
About Sea Change
Sea Change are also working with Clean Coasts and have committed, that with every bottle of Sea Change wine sold, they will make a donation to Clean Coasts and their other charity partners which all fund ocean conservation projects across the globe.