PPE pollution on the rise on beaches across UK

The results from this year’s Great British Beach Clean show a concerning, but perhaps predictable, presence of PPE litter.

Run by the Marine Conservation Society, the annual beach clean found items of PPE on 30 per cent of the areas they cleaned up, with pieces of plastic or polystyrene, plastic takeaway cup lids, and wet wipes cited as the most common items picked up. According to the group, 80 per cent of litter on our beaches has made its way there from our parks, rivers and streets far from the coast.

However, this year, due to the coronavirus crisis, PPE featured for the first time on the beaches surveyed. Masks and gloves were also found by volunteers in 69 per cent of inland litter picks. Like many other single-use items, disposable face masks and gloves posed a threat to wildlife on land and at sea. Face masks and gloves were found on almost 30 per cent of beaches cleaned by volunteers, whilst the Source to Sea Litter Quest data shows a similarly worrying presence of masks and gloves, with more than two thirds of litter picks finding PPE items.

Lizzie Prior, the Great British Beach Clean coordinator, said: “The amount of PPE our volunteers found on beaches and inland this year is of concern. Considering mask-wearing was only made mandatory in shops in England in late July, little more than three months before the Great British Beach Clean, the sharp increase in PPE litter should be a warning for what could be a new form of litter polluting our beaches in the future.”

Volunteers carried out beach cleans in 385 coastal areas in September, covering 43,958 metres of beach.