Weymouth Beach covered in litter as hot weather hits

Dave Taylor of Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project headed down to the award-winning beach on Saturday evening after the majority of people had left.

The environmental activist spent two hours cleaning the shore which was left in ‘one of the worst states he has ever seen.’

Mr Taylor said: “It took me two hours to pick it all up, it was quite bad. There was stuff everywhere including loads of cans and bottles. It was one of the worst states I have ever seen it in. It’s just terrible.”

Overall, he took away six sacks full of litter, picking up 215 discarded cans, 105 plastic bottles, a sack of plastic beach toys, three inflatable kids toys and a bag of general waste which included three used nappies.

Some of the items collected by Mr Taylor (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

Mr Taylor added: “There were lots of glass bottles left and it wasn’t like people had just forgotten them. There was even a blanket surrounded by plastic toys. They must have literally got up, walked off and left lots of brand-new plastic toys behind – It’s just so wasteful.

“Someone even left a KFC bag. They collected their rubbish, put it in the carrier bag and just left it in the middle of the beach.

KFC rubbish (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

“All of the birds are also pecking at the plastics on the beach which is quite sad.

“We recycle the cans though. There were cans all over the planters along the promenade. We send all our cans off to Exeter Council to recycle and they pay us for them.”

Discarded cans (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

Mr Taylor added that last year the Marine Litter Project were finding lots of polystyrene food containers and the one bright spot was thet this year they are all cardboard.

Businesses in England are banned from selling and distributing single-use polystyrene and single use cutlery – although he did come across a number of plastic forks.

Litter left on the beach (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.

Mr Taylor said: “One of the reasons we do what we do is because if I left it there, most of it would have been picked up in the morning by the tractor and the issue with that is that it doesn’t get recycled. Stuff also gets washed out to sea.

Overflowing beach bin (Image: Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project)

“We are trying to highlight the issues of trying to get people to take their stuff home. We clean the beach to protect the environment - Lots of people do take their stuff and put it by the bins. It’s just frustrating.

“The harbour was also disgusting and covered in chip boxes. The council have emptied the bins, but they have not swept the streets, it looked like there had been a festival there.”