Some 63 tonnes of marine litter were collected from Irish beaches during the Big Beach Clean over the weekend.
Volunteers took part in over 500 clean-ups across the country, ridding our shorelines of unsightly and potentially harmful rubbish.
The Big Clean is an annual call to action as part of the International Coastal Cleanup, operated internationally by Ocean Conservancy, at the end of the bathing season.
Read More: Clean-up 'nightmare' after mountains of litter left behind by crowds at Dublin beach
And this year was a record year for Ireland with the number of events planned.
For the third year, Cully and Sully joined Clean Coasts as sponsors of the call-to-action and one of their registered group Clean Coasts Ballynamona to host a flagship event at Ardnahinch, Co Cork.
Cullen Allen (Cully) said: “We were delighted with yet another amazing Big Beach Clean weekend.
“The Clean Coasts staff and volunteers were fantastic across the weekend, although we know many are out every weekend of the year, not just Big Beach Clean weekend... so thank you all.
“This is one of our favourite initiatives across the year and it was so heartwarming to see the great turn out yet again for 2022.”
Clean Coasts officers also attended beach cleans in several locations around Ireland.
A spokesperson said: “Statistics show the number one cause of marine litter is litter dropped in towns and cities and getting involved in the Big Beach Clean has been a way for residents of non-coastal counties to help prevent litter entering our waterways tackle the problem at its source.
“Each year this initiative is also an opportunity for Big Beach Clean volunteers to get involved in a worldwide citizen science project, which entails collecting the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches and filling in Clean Coasts’ Marine Litter Data Cards to share with Ocean Conservancy, help heighten awareness about the issue of marine litter serving as an indicator of the magnitude of the problem and help shape future policies and campaigns.”
So far, data collected from the International Coastal Cleanup have informed policy in a number of areas, leading to laws banning the use of plastic grocery bags, prohibiting smoking-related litter, encouraging the use of reusable bags, prohibiting mass balloon releases and prohibiting foam food and beverage takeaway containers.
Clean Coasts and Cully and Sully have also teamed up to create some resources to help people educate themselves on which household items are recyclable, which ones aren’t and how to correctly dispose of rubbish in your home as well as rubbish found on the beach. If you’re curious about recycling basics, common beach finds and how to dispose of them, what happens to our waste, stats on recycling in Ireland and more, go to https://cleancoasts.org/how-to-recycle/.
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