AN ESTIMATED 300 billion pieces of plastic are floating in the arctic ocean, under immense pressure the seas surrounding our coastline are victim to this tragedy. On Wednesday, May 15, a team from Savills, in the south of England, participated in the nationwide clean-up effort led by the Marine Conservation Society.

Jo Judge of Savills said: “We make every effort to support local initiatives that benefit the environment in which we work. The Regional Business Development group in the south championed the beach clean which was a great success and collected 691 pieces of rubbish from Brighton beach, of which 53 per cent were plastics.

“We worked closely with the Marine Conservation Society to ensure a structured approach to the event and generated a team of 17 volunteers from offices around the southern region, accompanied by some of our clients.”

Kate Whitton, community engagement manager at the Marine Conservation Society was delighted to support another organisation in the fight against marine litter in the UK.

Kate said: “As the UK’s leading marine charity, we work to ensure seas surrounding the UK are healthy, pollution free and protected. Beachwatch is our national beach cleaning and litter survey initiative, encouraging people around the UK to care for their coastline.

“The team from Savills made a fantastic contribution and collected 18kg of rubbish along 100 metres of coastline. The volunteers also supported our research programme, completing a litter survey to identify the types of rubbish being picked up and highlighting that 45% of the rubbish collected was public source.”

Single use plastics are used in almost every aspect of our daily lives, from brushing our teeth to storing our food. An impact of this pollution is five garbage patches, one three times the size of France, floating around in our oceans. The Marine Conservation Society are noticing improvements and have recorded a 47 per cent reduction in plastic bags on UK beaches, since the charge system was introduced in 2011.

In her closing remarks, Jo said: “Cleaning up Brighton beach has many benefits for the area, not least the contribution made to protecting the seas and coastland around the UK, which we all enjoy.”

The Marine Conservation Society has a nationwide programme to encourage and support beach cleaning efforts around the UK. Visit https://www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch/ to find out more about a beach clean in your local area.