Volunteers clean up a mess left by campers at Banna Beach on Saturday.
TWENTY volunteers took part in the clean-up of Banna Beach on Saturday and joined the movement for Litter Free Seas by being part of the 29th annual International Coastal Cleanup
Banna saw a fantastic turnout for this year’s Big Beach Clean with volunteers giving just one hour of their time to help clean up Kerry’s beautiful coastline.
Twenty-five bags of litter were collected. The bags were filled with marine litter which included, fishing line, net and ropes and terrestrial litter mostly made up of plastic bottles, crisp and sweet wrappers, cigarette butts, plastic bags and glass bottles.
Some unusual finds included a duvet, socks and trainers! Rachel Boyle of Banna Coastcare wished to thank everyone that turned up and gave up their Saturday morning
“It was another fantastic event, you would be surprised how much fun you can have picking up litter!” said Rachel.
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Rachel asked volunteers to note the litter they found as Clean Coasts will use this information to produce a snapshot of the problem of marine litter in Ireland and also share this information with the international Ocean Conservancy to form part of the worldwide survey.
“We all have a responsibility in caring for our coastline, our beaches are important places for numerous reasons so it’s great to give a little back so we can continue to enjoy them,” said Rachel.
“The litter we remove from the coast is not representative of the full load of marine litter in the environment. In fact, some say it only represents approximately 15% the remainder is on the seabed and floating in the water column.”
The cleanup on Banna was organised by Rachel Boyle (Banna Coastcare). Kerry County Council supported the event by removing all the bags collected. The Big Beach Clean is an initiative organised as part of An Taisce’s Clean Coasts Programme who have teamed up with the International Ocean Conservancy to Clean up Ireland’s coastline.
Volunteers at Banna Beach for the Clean Coasts Clean-up on Saturday.
The mess left by campers on the sand dunes in Banna on Saturday last.
Volunteers at work on Saturday morning in Banna.
