HALF a car engine was among the rubbish picked up by beach cleaners at the weekend.

Volunteers found it close to Brighton Palace Pier as they were taking part in the Great British Beach Clean event.

The clean-up, run by the Marine Conservation Society, was its biggest yet.

Three major Brighton companies gathered to arrange beach cleans over the weekend, including the Sea Life Centre and ZSTa, an architecture firm in Dorset Place, Kemp Town.

Richard Zinzan, partner at ZSTa, said: “The beach clean is a great event and it is such a worthwhile cause, making our beach more habitable for us and the wildlife.

“We all get rather competitive with the most litter collected and hunting for the most unusual piece of litter found.

“We at ZST architects are passionate about our city and are fortunate to be in a position to support and organise these clean-ups with the help of local communities.”

The company worked with the support of Brighton and Hove City Council Cityclean, picking up more than a dozen bags of rubbish – plus the car engine.

The beach cleans are an essential part of the Marina Conservation Society’s mission to prevent waste from contaminating our sea water and affecting marine wildlife.

The society has partnered with TerraCycle for the first time in its history, arranging for many of the plastics removed from the events to be sorted and recycled.

They are given a second life as new products such as shampoo bottles.

Representatives of Soaper Duper, a UK company that makes naturally derived bath and body products, travelled from London to help out at the event.

Katie Neiman, marketing manager at Soaper Duper, said: “It’s important to us that we reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea.

“As it’s such a huge part of what we do, it was really key that we come down and get involved.

“Looking at what was found, we saw a lot of cable ties, bottle tops and syringes.

“Our packaging is made from recycled plastic which is really difficult to do.”

The company launched Bliss spas, Soap and Glory, FitFlop and discount beauty service Beauty Pie.

Its launch came hot off the heels of the Government’s announcement last year that plastic microbeads – which have entered the food chain – would be banned in beauty and cleaning products by the end of 2017.

Ms Neiman said: “What we have now is a plastic soup crisis.

“It needs to be stopped.”