Portland: Asylum seekers join community for litter pick

Volunteers from the Bibby Stockholm and local residents joined the Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project (WPMLP) for their involvement in the Great British Spring Clean on Portland.

Organiser and co-founder of the project Dave Taylor said: "It was a real community event, we always provide refreshments and there was a such great atmosphere as people enjoyed a well-deserved coffee together in the sunshine at the end, it was a real eye opener for some as to how much litter there was to collect."

Great British Spring Clean on Portland (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

The Marine Litter Project is based in Wyke Regis and is a community interest company founded by local environmentalists Jane Fuhrmann and Dave Taylor.

The organisation's main objective is to create community-based projects aimed at reducing the pollution from litter in our seas and on our beaches.

Great British Spring Clean on Chesil Beach (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

Around 43 volunteers headed off from Victoria Square to clean Osprey Quay, Chesil Beach and Chiswell, collecting a ‘huge’ amount of litter and filling a total of 47 sacks.

An additional pile of large items was also collected, and everything was left to be collected by Dorset Council.

Some of the rubbish collected (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

The Great British Spring Clean is now in its ninth year and is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign.  

It's free to attend with refreshments including hot cross buns for all participants.

Mr Taylor recently spoke to the Echo about the influx of microplastics and nurdles appearing on Dorset beaches, suggesting that we need to 'tackle the problem at the source.'

He said: “Most of the micro plastics on Weymouth Beach are from the summer as a lot of the rubbish gets left and on a small scale, there’s not a lot that people in Weymouth can do about nurdles, but in a perfect world where all the litter had gone, then we could tackle the nurdles.

“We try and stop things happening in the first place. We need to try and tackle the problem at the source.”

Nurdles are by definition a microplastic because they are less than 5mm in size and are melted down and made into many plastic items, from clothes to cars and food wrappers.

READ MORE: How asylum seekers on the barge are making a difference

The WPMLP are rounding off the 2024 Spring Clean with a series of Weymouth based events on Easter Sunday.

Places need to be booked on the groups Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/weymouth-portland-marine-litter-project-55082184023.