THANK you to our readers for throwing themselves wholeheartedly into The Big Clean Up.

Without you it would not have happened in the first place.

Our campaign, with the support of Brighton and Hove City Council, helped clear all manner of objects off the beach.

Yesterday’s event showed what gets left behind on our beaches after a busy weekend from the innocuous bottle caps and cigarette ends to the foul reality of dog mess and bags of drugs.

In our coverage last week we spoke to beach cleaners who clear away syringes, nappies and discarded food as well as barbecues and bonfire remnants.

It is a dirty job but someone has to do it and they do it well but why does this happen in the first place?

It is good getting people to pitch in (and it is something we will never tire of doing) but we need to get to the root cause.

Why do people leave all of this stuff on the beach – laziness, ignorance, a pure, brazen lack of respect for their surroundings? Probably all of these things.

What will it take to fix it? More bins? More signs saying “Please Keep Our Beach Tidy”? Wardens with loud-hailers naming and shaming people? The stocks? We will let you make up your own minds.

Ultimately it is about education. Dropping litter is outrageously antisocial. There is a school of thought that believes what begins in littering ends in graffiti and broken windows. To use a worn phrase, it is the thin end of the wedge.

Whatever it takes, we have to change people’s way of thinking. We have to reawaken that pang in their conscience that makes them stop and think and do the right thing.