Introduction

Edinburgh, with its distinctive skyline, is rightly considered one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. But Edinburgh, and Scotland more generally, has a problem. Scotland's beaches have the worst levels of litter in the UK. Whilst not just limited to Edinburgh's shores, the litter blights the landscape and runs the risk of ruining Scotland's reputation for having inspirational and accessible natural environment right on its doorstep.

Whilst over £500m is spent a year to remove litter from our streets, waterways and open spaces in the UK, only £15m of that is spent cleaning up our beaches. For most of us, marine litter is invisible. The detritus which ends up on our beaches is however a visible indicator of just how trashed our seas really are.

According to The Marine Conservation Society, the main sources of beach litter are visitors' rubbish - mostly in the form of plastics and polystyrene, fishing debris, and sewage related waste. Besides being an eyesore and a potential health hazard, marine litter also has a major impact on wildlife through entanglement and ingestion.

But it needn't remain this way. There are lots of ways individuals and groups can help to reduce and remove the amount of litter from our seas and on our beaches. As part of the Living Witness project, a group of us regularly meet up, and tackle some of the worse effected areas around Edinburgh. Thus far, and in association with East Lothian Council, we have twice cleaned the area around the outwash of the Esk, near Fisherrow Harbour, in Musselburgh. Many participants exclaim great satisfaction at having made a visible impact. This is aided by the social chit-chat which follows at S. Luca's over ice cream!

The beach cleans are quarterly and you are cordially invited along. Details of future beach cleans will be posted here when they become available.

Join us if you will, insuring to bring warm clothes, sturdy footwear and garden gloves if you have any (but don't worry if you don't, as gloves, bags and litter pickers are provided by the East Lothian Ranger who is also in attendance).

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Apr09 Beach Clean

The Living Witness Project had a very productive beach clean on Saturday the 18th of April -- check out the accompanying photograph ... and that is only half of what the three of us actually collected*.

Not only is the accumulated rubbish you see emblematic of our deliberate trashing of the seas, the missing waste reminds us that much of the harm done by such pollutants is invisible to the eye. From sewage and flame retardants, to toxic waste and heavy metals, our severe and knowing interference of the sea not only effects the entire marine food web, but it also contaminates the fish we eat and (evidently) the beaches we visit. We cannot afford to go on treating the sea as an infinite and disused resource worthy only of our exploitation and abuse.

Although we've all got smiles on our faces, you also couldn't help but pause for thought.


* The City Council arrived early and carted away our first lot before we had a chance to photograph it.
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