Northern Ireland beach litter figure drops

Northern Ireland has seen a decrease in the amount of litter on its beaches, despite a rise in the UK annual figure.

The results were revealed in the UK’s biggest annual beach clean and litter survey, carried out in September 2003 by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).

The Beachwatch 2003 Report survey recorded the highest density of litter on UK beaches since the first survey 11 years ago.

On average, one item was recorded for every 48cm of beach surveyed, with litter density rising by 29% compared to 2002 results - and by 99% compared to Beachwatch 1994.

However, while England recorded the highest density of beach litter, with 2,655 items per kilometre surveyed, Northern Ireland recorded just 807 items/km compared with Wales (2455.2 items/km), Scotland (1,535.5 items/km) and the Channel Islands (1,125 items/km).

Beach visitors were found to be the biggest source of beach litter contributing 36.7% of all litter found, followed by fishing debris (14.6%), sewage related debris (7.8%) and shipping litter (2.0%).

Plastic items accounted for over 50% of the litter found, including 5,831 plastic bags, the equivalent of 43 plastic bags for every kilometre of coastline surveyed.

To tackle the problem MCS has urged government to introduce more effective laws to prevent littering by the public, reduce unnecessary plastic packaging and introduce a Plastic Bag Tax, which has been successfully introduced in the Republic of Ireland.

(MB)