Annual beach clean-up under way

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Thousands of volunteers are taking part in the Marine Conservation Society's annual Beachwatch weekend.

They will be cleaning up 400 of the UK's beaches, and recording the types of litter they find.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) notes every piece of rubbish found on a 100-metre stretch of each beach.

The details gathered will be used by the MCS to launch campaigns and tackle the problem. The project began in 1993.

Sanitary waste

The results, which are published each spring, are used by the MCS to campaign against the sources of beach litter at local, national and international levels.

The organisation said that, as well as being an eyesore, beach litter posed a danger to many species of marine life.

In the past 10 years its surveys have noted an near-doubling in the amount of rubbish being dumped on the UK's coastline.

Sources of rubbish were beach visitors and trawlers, with fishing debris, sanitary waste - particularly cotton bud sticks - and shipping waste found on the nation's shores.

Cornwall coast

Bethan Jones, MCS litter projects co-ordinator said: "Taking part is easy and volunteers will be helping to clean hundreds of kilometres of the UK's coastline as well as supporting our campaign to reduce litter on our beaches and at sea."

In Cornwall more than 70 beaches will be targeted along both the north and south coasts as part of the clean-up work.

More than 3,500 volunteers took part in 2005's Beachwatch weekend, tackling litter on 300 beaches and collecting nearly 3,000 bags of rubbish.

Volunteers can find out what beaches are taking part by calling 019 8956 7807.