Around 300 sparklers and more than 100 pieces of rubbish were picked up from Weymouth Beach the day after Bonfire Night celebrations.
Volunteers from Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project headed down to the seafront first thing Sunday morning to collect any mess left on the beach.
It came after thousands of people gathered on to catch a dazzling display organised by Weymouth Town Council.
The town council did place orange sparkler bins around the area in addition to the usual bins.
- Organisers Weymouth Town Council did place orange sparkler buckets around the beach in addition to bins Picture: Weymouth Town Council
David Taylor, director of the litter project, a community interest company, said it was frustrating some people ‘didn’t seem to care’ about leaving litter to wash into the sea.
“It’s so frustrating,” he said. We usually do Chesil Beach because we know Weymouth Town Council go down to Weymouth but as it was Bonfire Night I thought I’d go down early. It has been much worse in the past but we did find at least 300 sparklers. People can’t say it’s a lack of bins – there are loads of them.”
- Picture: David Taylor/ Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project
David and a friend collected the sparklers between them, despite Weymouth Town Council providing orange bins specifically for sparklers in addition to the usual bins on the beach.
READ: Bonfire Night 2022: Firework display in Weymouth
He also collected 123 pieces of rubbish, three vapes and some fireworks. On his way home he collected another bag of bottles from the near the King's Statue.
David set up the Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project 18 months ago with the hope of finding ways to prevent litter rather than simply cleaning up after people.
- Picture: David Taylor/ Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project
“You don’t want to spend all day litter picking for people to go and do it again,” he said. “We want to prevent it from happening in the first place.
“There are enough bins around,” he added. “There are bins everywhere. I don’t know if it’s that people don’t realise it ends up in the sea, or if they just don’t care. I know a minority do care but, from my experience, the problem of litter being left around on our beaches is getting worse.”
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