North Devon Beaches

Croyde Bay, North Devon

We are fortunate to live just a short distance from so many lovely beaches in North Devon. Woolacombe Beach has recently been voted on of the top five beaches in Europe by Trip Advisor as well as the number one beach in the UK.  But we also have the choice of Saunton and Croyde for surfing as well as Crow Point, Lee Bay and Hele Bay if you fancy something more secluded, to name but a few. A beach clean can be done at any beach, anywhere in the world though, not just in North Devon.

Plastics

Sadly, even on our beautiful beaches in Devon, you cannot fail to notice that it is not just golden sand you are walking on… there can also be an amount of plastics; some washed up by the sea, some just dropped carelessly by people. Plastic is Killing our Oceans.

Dame Ellen Macarthur, record breaking sailor, is warning that there will be more waste plastic in the sea by 2050 than fish! Her Foundation has reported that,

every year “at least 8m tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean – which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050

“In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish [by weight].”

Plastic has become a substance we seem unable to live without. (figures from Plastic Oceans)

• According to water filtration company Brita, Americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year.
• Packaging is the largest end use market segment accounting for just over 40|% of total plastic usage (Plastics Europe)
• Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute.
• A plastic bag has an average “working life” of 15 minutes.
• Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.
• Plastic accounts for around 10% of the total waste we generate

Recycled Plastic Leggings?

The leggings that Ellie is wearing in the photos are from Teeki. They are made from recycled plastic bottles so were the perfect choice for our beach clean!  Europe’s only stockist of the full Teeki range just happens to be based in Croyde.

Tiki Leggings made from recycled plastic bottles!

Croyde Surf Club Monthly Beach Clean

This Sunday, we went along to help the many other volunteers to help Croyde Surf Club with their monthly beach clean.  We were given a large bin bag and off we went to collect rubbish.  I was shocked at how much there was – we only stayed about an hour, but still found bottle tops, bits of rope, doggy poo bags, crisp packets, a glass bottle and various plastic bits and bobs.

On the beach collecting rubbish

The Surf Club kindly offered all volunteers to join them for stew at a local pub, but we had to get home as the girls still had homework to do!  Maybe next time…

2 Minute Beach Clean

Anyone can help with this worthy cause and you don’t have to wait for the monthly beach cleans organised by Croyde Surf Club.  Next time you go to the beach, whether it’s to surf or walk the dog, it’s easy to make time for a 2 minute beach clean. You pick up a few bits of marine litter and take it home to recycle or put it in a bin at the beach. It’s as simple as that. There is more information on the website http://beachclean.net/

You could even then photograph your collection and post it to Twitter or Instagram using the #2minutebeachclean hashtag.

Blue Sky!

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