News 

There are an estimated 11,983,664 items of litter polluting Northern Ireland at all times, according to the findings within a local report funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has revealed the figure in its Litter Composition Analysis Report 2022-23, following surveys of 1,100 rural and urban roads across all local council areas between November 2022 and February 2023.

Analysing all forms of litter including drinks containers, dog fouling and confectionery packaging, the report establishes that producers from the soft drinks, chocolate and chewing gum industries command 64 per cent of all branded litter found around the province. It has also been identified that Coca-Cola HBC Ltd, Red Bull GmbH, Mondelez Europe, and AG Barr products make up 50 per cent of the branded litter problem, and that 54 per cent of the total litter recorded is made from plastic.

Vaping products have emerged as almost two per cent of the litter problem, placing them on a par with perennial litter offenders like coffee cups and food waste. And cigarette-butts remain a significant threat to the environment, with a predicted 1,194,692 butts scattered throughout communities in Northern Ireland, accounting for ten per cent of the overall litter slice.

Chris Gourley, Waste and Pollution Solutions Strategic Lead at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful said: “Our report highlights that Northern Ireland has a severe litter problem. Understanding the composition of litter is a sensible step in putting forward credible solutions.

“It is particularly concerning that most of the litter recorded was single use plastic, but this does help to highlight how crucial it is for Northern Ireland to move towards a circular economy in which the life cycle of products is extended as far as possible, resulting in less waste in circulation. Whilst we recognise that legislative change is on the way, including Extended Producer Responsibility beginning from next year, and a Deposit Return Scheme from 2025, more needs to be done to educate, engage and empower. We strongly believe that with continued collaboration and contribution from producers, policymakers, politicians and the public, we can deliver change.”

Lesley Roberts, Head of Waste Prevention Policy at DAERA said: “DAERA remains committed to tackling the problem of littering and will continue to work with stakeholders to advance our anti-litter agenda. DAERA uses a combined approach of legislation, education, awareness and enforcement to tackle littering, and provide funding to support programmes which challenge litter-habits directly as well as changing attitudes and behaviours towards litter.

In December 2022, the Department successfully implemented new legislation which gave local Councils discretionary powers to increase the maximum fixed penalty notice fine from £80 to £200 for litter and dog fouling offences in their council area.”

The Litter Composition Analysis Report 2022-23 is the second litter producer-focused study published by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, following a similar Litter Composition Producer Report released by the charity in 2021. Both reports are part of a wider project funded by DAERA to address the production, consumption and littering of single-use plastic in Northern Ireland.

To read the Litter Composition Analysis Report 2022-23 in full, visit www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org/litter-composition-reports.

Environmental charity, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has released its annual Cleaner Neighbourhoods report, which reveals a snapshot of the local environmental quality of all eleven council areas across Northern Ireland. While the overall picture of the streets has slightly improved after a worrying spike during the lockdowns of 2020, drinks packaging, including plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups, continues to be a major problem, with rural roads being disproportionately affected.

The report also recommends the use of nudge behaviour from councils to encourage the public to use bins where available. The number of areas surveyed that failed to meet acceptable standards of cleanliness is revealed within the report, down 3% from last year’s results with 15% of the areas surveyed now below standard. Dog fouling has also returned to pre-pandemic levels, following a dramatic increase in 2020, with instances of dog fouling recorded down 7% from last year to 6%.

Commenting on the report, Charmaine Beer from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said, “Whilst payments for ground litter by producers of packaging are not currently planned for Northern Ireland, they will pay costs for the management of packaging in street bins and will also pay for prevention activity for littered packaging such as communication campaigns targeting litterers. Under the new Extended Producer Responsibility scheme payments will be made by packaging producers to NI councils for management of household packaging waste from 2024, which will amount to £35million per year in NI. There will be clearer binary labelling on all packaging from 2026 to help consumers recycle correctly and plastic flexibles and film will have household collection for recycling from 2027. All of these will provide a great incentive to do the right thing.”

The findings from this year’s survey took a close analysis of litter related to food packaging, particularly drinks, with plastic bottle, hot drinks cups, lids and straws found in 50% of the areas surveyed. Most surprisingly, 90% of rural roads featured littered drinks packaging and cigarette butts remained the top item of litter found in NI, with 65% of all areas surveyed having so form of cigarette litter present.

Dr Ian Humphreys, CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said, “With the environment once again on the top of the agenda as COP27 is underway, we are reminded that action is required globally and here in Northern Ireland.

“The amount of litter we are now having to deal with is extremely concerning – it’s not only unsightly but it has a real impact on council budgets, wasting money that could be spent on other public services and helping deal with the cost-of-living crisis. There’s no evidence to suggest that human nature has fundamentally changed over the past number of decades, but what has changed is the amount of plastic packaging being produced, which grown exponentially over the past 15 years, which is why it’s misleading to lay the problem entirely at the feet of the public. We need to have an honest conversation about this issue and that is why manufacturers and retailers need to step up and take their share of the cost of cleaning up the mess on our streets.”

Although the report reflects the army of litter-picking volunteers across Northern Ireland doing their best to keep our streets free from litter and a safe place for the public to come together, Charity CEO says more needs to be done to try and stop litter at the source.

Ian added, “We are very disappointed in the recent announcement that litter will not be retained in UK wide Extended Producer Responsibility legislation. This means the loss of millions of pounds annually which would have funded clean-up operations and alleviated the pressure on ratepayers. We believe this is a missed opportunity to ensure that packaging producers take on their share of the responsibility for this societal problem.”

For more information and to read the full Cleaner Neighbourhoods report visit: Cleaner Neighbourhoods Report (keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org)

Environmental charity, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has released its latest Marine Litter Report, which reveals more than double the amount of litter on Northern Ireland’s beaches from the same period last year.

The 2021 Marine Litter Report (reports are published retrospectively) shows that, on average, 762 items of litter were found per 100 metres of beach surveyed; up from 375 items the previous year. A total of 36,587 items of litter were found throughout the survey period on Northern Ireland’s twelve survey beaches.

The surveys in Northern Ireland are funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the data collected is fed into the International OSPAR Commission database to help in developing a global scientific understanding of this significant problem and to inform actions to address the issue.

Community-based campaign, Live Here Love Here is supporting communities across Northern Ireland to pitch in and help tackle the issue at local level and has issued a final call to apply for its Marine Litter Capital Grants Scheme. Funded by DAERA, applications are open to organisations and groups from across Northern Ireland until 16 September 2022.

Now in its second year, the scheme is making £198,000 available for ideas that help to prevent litter from entering Northern Ireland’s waterways, including lakes, coastlines and riverbanks.

The Marine Litter Report once again names and shames the worst culprits in terms of the type of materials found at the beach. Of the top ten most recorded items, five were made of plastic and polystyrene, many of which were broken down into small pieces. 81% of all litter recorded was plastic, which commonly includes drinks and fast food or snack packaging and lids.

Other commonly found items included discarded PPE as well as short pieces of string, cord and rope, and heavy-duty gloves, which saw a resurgence during the survey period, despite having decreased steadily in previous years.

Commenting on the Marine Litter Report, Environment Minister Edwin Poots MLA said, “Naturally, I am disappointed that the levels of litter recorded on our beautiful coastline increased during 2021. It is especially disappointing considering the downward trend which started back in 2018.

I remain optimistic, however, that the coordinated approach my Department has adopted, including forthcoming legislation to increase the maximum fixed penalty available to councils for litter offences to £200, will ultimately be successful and the blight of plastic pollution will one day be a thing of the past.

I am proud that my Department has sponsored initiatives such as the Marine Litter Capital Grants scheme which is managed by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. The scheme funded a range of novel and interesting projects during 2021. The 2022 scheme is now open for applications and I would encourage everyone to get involved.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has removed litter from our environment and would encourage everyone not to litter; please leave no trace.”

Helen Tomb, from Live Here Love Here partnership, which is managed by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, and which administers the marine litter grants, added:

“Marine litter, particularly plastics, has an incredibly negative effect on animals and eventually on humans, as it proceeds up the food chain. We are proud to deliver the Marine Litter Capital Grants scheme for a second consecutive year. Funded by DAERA, it was extremely successful last year with a real mix of practical and creative entries. The overall aim is to prevent litter from reaching the marine environment, and as 80 per cent of marine litter comes from land-based activities, grants are available for projects right across Northern Ireland. The deadline for applications is fast approaching, so we would strongly encourage those eligible to apply and help us to make Northern Ireland cleaner, greener and safer.”

Read the full Marine Litter Report at www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org/marinelitter. More information on the Marine Litter Capital Grants is available at www.liveherelovehere.org/marinelittergrants.

Ends.

For more information and interview requests please contact Navigator Blue:

Annette McCormick

a.mccormick@navigatorblue.com

075 6387 4593

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has signed a letter with our partners Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Scotland Beautiful to call for litter payments to form a key component of the UK Government’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy.

The signatories to the letter believe that the EPR scheme offers a meaningful chance to tackle the root causes of many environmental problems by fully adopting the “polluter pays” principle. This underpins the proposals by shifting the costs of pollution onto those who profit from placing large amounts of packaging on the market.

The UK Government, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland had proposed that under the forthcoming EPR system, producers would be made responsible for the full net costs of managing packaging waste, including bin and ground litter management costs.

Speaking about this issue our Chief Executive, Ian Humphreys said "In Northern Ireland, we have spoken loudly about the litter problem. It's costing us millions of pounds every year to deal with. Along with our partners, we believe that only with meaningful and collaborative action can we see a real improvement. That is why I am adding Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful's voice to this letter so that we include litter payments in EPR legislation to help support the costs of dealing with this problem"

Letter to ministers is attached.

The 2020 Marine Litter Report found an average of 375 items of litter per 100 meters of beach surveyed, the environmental charity Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful can reveal. This equates to a total of 18,767 items of litter recorded on the 12 beaches surveyed.

As was the case in 2019, plastics were the most commonly recorded items of litter, making up 67% of all litter counted. On average, 37 plastic drinks containers and 48 lids were found per 100 meters surveyed. Additionally, short pieces of string, cord and rope were found across the beaches, with an average of 70 lengths of string counted per survey.

Despite the significant challenges presented by COVID-19 there is room for optimism as this report shows that there has been a reduction in the amount of litter and in particular the amount of plastic recorded on Northern Ireland’s beaches from previous years. Speaking about the findings in the report, Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Dr Ian Humphreys said;

‘This report once again demonstrates the continuing pollution of Northern Ireland’s seas and shores. Whilst it is welcome that we have seen an improvement, we cannot take any progress for granted and must ensure that we keep this downward trend going. There is no hiding place anymore for ignorance about the impact that litter is having on our beaches, seas and waterways. We need to see greater emphasis on behaviour change campaigns and also a stronger requirement on producers of our waste to take more proactive steps in helping pay for the cost of cleaning up our waste.

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful is grateful to all those who dedicate their valuable time to survey, record and remove litter from beaches in Northern Ireland. It is their dedication and work that makes all the difference in the battle against litter. But they cannot do this alone, we all need to play our part in tackling this problem’.

The surveys in Northern Ireland are funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the data collected is fed into the International OSPAR Commission database to help in developing a global scientific understanding of this significant problem and to inform actions to address the issue.

Throughout 2020, while carrying out marine litter surveys, more people than ever before approached the surveying team and enquired about what they were doing, with many sharing their stories about how they have been inspired to do something about the litter on their local beaches. Although this report has found the lowest record of litter since the beginning of the surveys in 2012, perhaps due to the highly unusual circumstances of 2020, this trend would need to continue before we could be confident there has been a true positive change in marine litter pollution on our local beaches.

To support the reduction in marine litter within Northern Ireland, a new grants scheme has been set-up, making £175,000 available in 2021/22 for organisations and groups to avail of. The aim of the scheme is to help prevent marine litter entering our environment as well as removing this litter from coastal and riverine areas. This will help protect our waterways and marine areas, as well as improving marine biodiversity and the health and wellbeing of our communities. It is hoped the scheme will run for a further 3 years with up to £675,000 available by 2025. The scheme is funded by DAERA and will be administered by Live Here Love Here.

The Tackling Marine Litter Grants Scheme closes at 11am on Monday 27th September 2021. For further information, please visit the Live Here Love Here website.

In addition to this grants scheme, the Department has recently launched a Call for Evidence on a Plan to Eliminate Plastic Pollution in Northern Ireland. The Call for Evidence will seek responses from a wide range of stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities that exist in eliminating plastic pollution, as well as seeking examples of best practice and sources of expertise or evidence. The public Call for Evidence opened on 28th June 2021 and will run for a 14 week period until 5pm on 1st October 2021

You can read the full report at www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org.

A new report produced by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, brings up worrying signs regarding the issue of litter and dog fouling throughout the country during the pandemic.

The Cleaner Neighbourhoods report, which details the findings of the 2020 Northern Ireland Litter Survey, highlights an increase in the levels of litter and dog fouling and a continued decline in the ‘cleanliness’ of streets, Roads and Public Spaces.

Figures from the survey show that 18% of the transects surveyed were deemed to be an unacceptable standard for cleanliness. This represents an increase in the number sites failing to meet the grade in 2019.

Findings and Insights

• The presence of dog fouling across Northern Ireland increased significantly from 6% of transects surveyed in 2019 to 13% in 2020. This is the highest level of dog fouling since the beginning of the surveys in 2012.

• The most commonly observed item of litter on Northern Ireland’s streets and public spaces remains cigarette butts. These were found to appear across all land use types with 69% of surveyed areas having at least one cigarette butt present, although this was seen as high as 93% and 94% along primary and secondary retail transects.

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was recorded on 3% of all streets and open spaces surveyed. It can be estimated that at any one time there could be 5,272 gloves and 2,000 masks on our streets and open spaces.

• Rural roads remain disproportionately affected by litter when compared with residential, retail and recreational areas. 48% of rural roads failed to reach an acceptable standard for litter. This litter is clearly coming from people throwing it out of their cars. The survey found that 41% of rural roads had takeaway litter present, 66% had confectionary litter present and 89% of all rural roads had drink related litter present.

It is perhaps not surprising that litter and dog fouling levels have risen given that the cleaning spend for Northern Ireland has dropped by nearly a third in two years, from £45,million in 2017 to just £31 million in 2019.

Commenting on the report Dr Ian Humphreys, CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said

Preventing littering requires all of us to do something. Government legislating to help end our dependence on single use items, people taking care to dispose of waste properly and businesses paying a fair share of the costs of cleaning up their packaging and cigarette butts are all needed to make a lasting difference.

We have a growing litter problem that we need to face up to as a community. The cost to our environment and public purse is too great a burden for us to bear. The pandemic has seen us care for the vulnerable in society. It is now time we extended that care for our vulnerable environment. As more people discover and enjoy the great outdoors we must all take our litter home or use the bins provided. To do anything else is to destroy what we hold dear.

You can read the full report at:

https://keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.knib.app/cgi-bin/generic?instanceID=48

In 2019, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful marine litter surveyors recorded an average of 508 pieces of litter per 100 meters of beach. This equates to an estimated 3.3 million items of litter on our coastline at any one time.

Plastic, not surprisingly makes up over 78% of the waste on Northern Ireland’s beaches, including many ‘single use’ items such as drinks bottles, food wrappers and broken pieces of plastic. In fact, such is the extent of the ‘plastic problem’ that 6 of the top 10 most common littered items on NI beaches were found to be derived from single-use plastics.

There were also many short pieces of string and rope, which may have originated from fishing activity.

One of the key indicators of the abundance, composition and trends of litter in the marine environment is the amount on beaches. The surveys of beach litter are carried out 4 times a year by trained volunteers across 11 ‘reference’ beaches around Northern Ireland’s coast. The surveys are funded by the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and all the data collected feeds into the OSPAR Commission database, helping with decision-making around marine litter in the North East Atlantic from Iceland to Portugal. OSPAR monitors litter on 100m stretches at over 70 beaches in the North-East Atlantic following common monitoring guidelines. The data is accessible to anyone and it is collected in the same way at every reference beach each year.

Commenting on the 2019 Report, Environment Minister Edwin Poots MLA - said;

“I welcome publication of the Marine Litter Report 2019 and acknowledge the excellent work that Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful do in partnership with my Department.

“This year’s report highlights the steady progress being made in tackling marine litter in Northern Ireland, leading to a cleaner, greener place to live. The figures reveal the stark reality of litter on our beaches, with over 22,000 pieces of litter collected across 11 beaches, with 78% of this made from single use plastic. It is a reminder of our continued fight against plastic pollution and its devastating consequences.

“We all want to see changes where we live and see a continuing reduction in the number of pieces of litter appearing in our waters and along our coastline. With summer upon us and an ease on coronavirus restrictions many of us may choose to holiday at home. However, I would remind people of the need to ‘leave no trace’, to take all their litter home with them and recycle it where they can. By adjusting our behaviours and acting responsibly we can all play our part in further driving down marine litter and making a day at the beach enjoyable for everyone, whilst also protecting our marine wildlife.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who give up their time to carry out these surveys throughout the year, their invaluable work contributes to the ongoing success of the Marine Litter Report and the importance of looking after our own local beaches.”

Every reference beach is cleaned within two weeks of the survey by a range of volunteers from; families and local groups to schools and businesses. In 2019 nearly 600 volunteers got involved to help clean up the beaches, collecting over 540 bags of litter from the 11 reference beaches alone.

Jamie Miller, Local Environmental Quality Manager for Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful stated, “Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful is grateful to all those who dedicate their valuable time to survey, record and remove litter from beaches in Northern Ireland. As the results of their invaluable work shows, the vast majority of litter on our beaches comes from single use plastics. Removing these items from beaches is a small step towards tackling a very large problem in our seas, which we are only just beginning to understand. We all have a role to play in tackling this hugely concerning environmental issue and can start by making small positive changes to our behaviours, such as avoiding single use plastic where possible, and always putting our rubbish in a bin.”

Since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic people are taking extra steps to protect themselves. It is important that the public recognises that using Personal Protective Equipment comes with the responsibility of not just using it properly but also disposing of it in a way that doesn’t harm the environment and other members of the public. These items once used, need to be put in the appropriate bin.

You can read the full report at www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org/marinelitter

A new report produced by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, highlights the need to bank the gains in the fight against litter.

The Cleaner Neighbourhoods report, which analyses the findings of the 2019 Northern Ireland Litter Survey, provides some encouraging news, showing there were improvements in the levels of litter and dog fouling across Northern Ireland.

The report, which details the results from the 2019 survey period, states that 86% of the streets and public spaces surveyed were deemed to meet an acceptable standard for cleanliness, an improvement on the previous year's results. The levels of dog fouling across Northern Ireland were also found to have declined; in 2019 only 6% of the 1,100 streets, roads and open spaces surveyed had dog fouling present, compared with 10% during the 2018 survey.

The most commonly observed item of litter in Northern Ireland’s streets and public spaces was cigarette butts. These were found to appear across all land use types with 60% of surveyed areas having at least one cigarette butt present, although there were often many more. Drinks containers, including plastic bottles, cans and takeaway coffee cups, were also noted as a recurring issue, observed in 45% of all surveyed areas.

Further Room for Improvement

Although the report indicates a slight reduction in dog fouling levels, it was noted that dog fouling clusters or ‘hotspots’ are still a problem. Streets and public spaces that did have dog fouling present, were found to have had an increased likelihood of having multiple occurrences, with one recreational area surveyed having as many as 9 dog fouls present on a 50m stretch. This supports the idea that a failure to clean up dog fouling is influenced by ‘signalling’, i.e. the presence of dog fouling indicates to other owners that not clearing up after their pet is acceptable in the area.

Rural roads, whilst improving, are still a problem and are disproportionately affected by litter when compared to residential, recreational and retail areas. 24% of rural roads failed to reach an acceptable standard for litter. Rural roads suffer mostly from the presence of plastic bottles, cans and take away coffee cups with 82% of transects having at least one drink container present. This type of litter will almost always come from cars with passengers carelessly throwing their empty drinks out of the windows.

The impacts of Covid-19 have put additional pressures on Waste collections services throughout Northern Ireland. There is a need for everyone to act responsibly and ensure they are disposing of their waste in an appropriate manner.

Commenting on the report Dr Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said

"We welcome that we have seen improvements last year in the fight against litter and now is not the time to take our foot off the peddle. Littering, no matter how small, damages our environment and hurts public health. The message is clear, disposing of our waste properly protects our vulnerable environment, just as it protects vulnerable key workers and public health. Working together, all sections of government and the community, we can all play our part in making a difference".

The Northern Ireland Litter survey is a country wide survey that is carried out by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful to assess the quality and cleanliness of our public spaces. The objective of the survey is to benchmark the cleansing performance of the councils by rating them against the same scale, thus ensuring a fair comparison. The results of the survey also provide a picture of the levels of different kinds of litter across Northern Ireland, how these vary by area, and how littering trends are varying over time.

The report concludes with a number of recommendations that Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful believe are necessary to meaningfully reduce littering, dog fouling and related environmental damage to Northern Ireland.

You can read the full report at: https://keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.knib.app/keepnorthernirelandbeautiful/documents/007934.pdf

ENDS

To speak to a press spokesperson or for more information please contact Jamie Miller, Local Environmental Quality Manager for Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful at: Jamie.miller@keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org T: 07725262248

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, has released a report funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), that demonstrates that litter remains at concerning levels in NI – damaging our forests, parks, beaches and streets.

The Litter Composition Report estimates 1,294,164 items are littered on our streets at any one time, weighing approximately 28 tonnes and costing the public purse £45 million annually in Northern Ireland.

According to the report, a significant amount of the litter found contained plastic - 71% is made up of cigarette butts, plastic bottles, confectionary and crisp wrappers. Plastic never breaks down and forms harmful micro-plastics which enter our ecosystem. The second most common category was metals at 14.5%, which was mostly made up of non-alcoholic drinks packaging at 9.7%.

Agriculture and Environment Minister, Edwin Poots, stated: “My Department is actively engaged in protecting and valuing our precious landscape, so it can be enjoyed by everyone. Those who engage in littering are not valuing our landscape and these actions have a negative impact that is felt across Northern Ireland. This Litter Composition Report shows that the amount of litter in our environment and entering the eco-system is still a real issue, and the findings will help to identify ways to address this. My Department, in partnership with Councils and NGOs, such as Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, is using a combined approach of legislation, education, awareness and enforcement to tackle and improve the litter issue in Northern Ireland. We are also working towards Northern Ireland’s first Environment Strategy which will play a key role in setting Northern Ireland’s environmental priorities for coming decades.”

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and DAERA commissioned the independent litter compositional analysis to alert both the general public and business community to the seriousness of the situation – no similar study has been conducted in Northern Ireland to date.

Dr Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful comments: “This is the first ever NI Litter Composition Report – and the root problems are clear. We need to tackle the fact that one in three people openly admit to littering*. We must also share the responsibility for litter that is being created through increased ‘convenience’ packaging.”

At Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful we invest in litter prevention awareness through our Live Here Love Here campaign.

#TacklingPlasticNI

Click on the link below to view full Litter Composition Report 2019/20.

In 2018, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful marine litter surveyors recorded 625 pieces of litter per 100 meters of beach - the highest average since the surveys began in 2012. Plastic, not surprisingly makes up over 78% of the waste on the beaches including many ‘single use’ items such as drinks bottles, food wrappers and broken pieces of plastic. There were also many short pieces of blue string and rope, which are likely to have come from the fishing industry.

The surveys are carried out 4 times a year by trained volunteers across ten ‘reference’ beaches around our coasts. The surveys are funded by the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and all the data collected feeds into the OSPAR Commission Database helping with decision-making around marine litter in the North East Atlantic from Iceland to Portugal. The data is accessible to anyone and at every reference beach it is collected in the same way at the same time of the year.

Commenting on the 2018 Report, David Small - Head of DAERA Environment, Marine and Fisheries Group said, “I would like to thank and congratulate Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and their network of volunteers on the marvellous work they have been doing to address the problem of marine litter pollution.

Marine litter pollution is a massive problem and one which can only be addressed by everyone playing their part. It is crucial that we continue to find ways to ensure our lifestyle choices don’t impact negatively on the environment, and the resources we depend on such as water, air, food and energy.”

Every one of the reference beaches are cleaned within two weeks of the survey by a range of volunteers from families and local groups to schools and businesses.

Nearly 3000 volunteers are involved in cleaning up the reference beaches, and they have collected over 1 million pieces of litter (December 2018) and over 5000 bags of litter have been removed.

Dr. Berman from Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful stated, “Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful may be on the cover of the Marine Litter Report, but it is the volunteers and groups who not only record every piece of litter on the beach but also clean up too making out beaches better places for everyone”

There is a surge of interest in people wanted to get out and clean up their local areas. Doing good feels good and doing good together feels even better. There are many amazing groups out there and people are thinking more about using a refillable bottle and taking their own home made packed lunch to work or school to reduce their waste.

We have beautiful beaches in Northern Ireland. There are many dedicated people who help keep them that way. Why not come out and join them or sign up to adopt a spot near you? Everywhere is connected to the sea so you can make a difference by acting local.

You can read the full report at www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org.

ENDS

To speak to a press spokesperson or more information please contact Dr Jade Berman, Local Environmental Quality & Business Development Manager for Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful at: jade.berman@keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org T: 028 90736920