The Great British Beach Clean starts this Friday

3 minute read

Our Great British Beach Clean 2021 begins this Friday. We’re so excited to see many of you on beaches across the country, keeping our coastline beautiful and helping us gather all-important data.

Last year our volunteers found an average of 425 items of litter for every 100 metres of UK beach clean and PPE items, like masks and gloves, were found on almost 30% of beaches. Help us find out what’s polluting our beaches this year by taking part and recording your data.

With your help, we can campaign for real change, and help our seas from being choked by rubbish.

Are you #BeachCleanReady?

Read our comprehensive beach clean organiser guide here.

Some things to remember before your clean...

Have you registered the clean on our website? Don’t forget!
You can sign up to one of many events all over the country here
Who’s coming? Make sure you know the amount of people that will be attending so you can be prepared
Download our handy Beachwatch App - here you'll be able to record litter during your beach clean and send it straight to us
Stay safe! Check our risk assessment form
Remember all of the essential equipment - litter pickers, gloves, bags... double check our guide before you go
Check the weather – the British seaside can be unpredictable!
Get out there! Pick up as much litter as you can
Once it’s all over, weigh the litter you’ve collected and arrange for pickup or drop at a collection point
If you're an organiser don't forget to add any final litter survey data using our helpful dashboard

Can’t make it to the beach?

If you can’t make it to the beach, why not get involved inland? Our Source to Sea Litter Quest has rounded up some of the most common beach litter items for you to spot far from the sea.

We want to see just how much ocean and beach pollution starts its life in villages, towns and cities far from the coast.

All you need to do is download the survey form and head outside – and this year it's even easier for you to share your results - simply fill in what you've found on the website form.

Beach cleaning prizes

This competition is now closed

For an extra incentive (if you needed one!) our partners at Salcombe Distilling Co. are offering one dedicated beach cleaner a luxury hamper.

The competition is running from Tuesday (September 21) and Sunday (September 26) and there are two great chances to get entered into the prize draw.

How to enter

Follow both the Marine Conservation Society @mcs_uk and Salcombe Gin @salcombegin on Instagram
Comment below our post announcing the competition on Tuesday and tag a friend who you’d like to team-up with for a beach clean
BONUS ENTRY tag @mcs_uk and @salcombegin in your Great British Beach Clean photos using the hashtag #BeachCleanReady

Prize details

The winner will receive 1 x Salcombe Gin Hamper, 1 x Salcombe Gin Jute bag, 1 x Weaver Green Blanket – total RRP of prize is £165.

Marine Conservation Society prize draw terms and conditions

This prize draw is only open to UK residents age 18 or over.
The opening time for the competition is 9am, Tuesday, September 21 closing date is midnight BST Sunday, September 26.

Credit: Aled Llywelyn

Our new app!

Our new Beachwatch app was released this week, and we’re hoping it’ll make it even easier for our volunteers to record the litter they find on the beach, with survey data sent directly to our database.

Don’t have internet? No problem. The survey data will be stored without internet connection on the beach during a beach clean. To submit your data all you have to do is reopen the app when you’re back online and reconnected to the internet.

Don't forget to log into the app before your event - you can access it and add it to your home screen here