HELP SAS WITH THE ‘RETURN TO OFFENDER’ BEACH LITTER CAMPAIGN

With our friends at the Marine Conservation Society reporting an estimated 1,988.7 items of litter for every kilometre of beach in the UK (an average of nearly two items for every metre stretch of beach) it is apparent that our beaches are increasingly under threat from a rising tide of items such as plastic pellets, cotton buds and cigarette butts.

SAS launched a Return to Offender – Address Known campaign in 2006 and since then we have been sending back litter we’ve found on the nations beaches to its owners. It’s not always easy identifying the source of the litter but when we’ve been able to do that we’ve sent the owners a postcard urging them to do more to prevent litter like their’s impacting on the beach environment like it is now.

In particular we are calling for companies;

To step up the ‘anti-littering’ message on their products
To look at using less harmful packaging to ensure products can be broken down naturally without putting wildlife at risk.
To promote recycling and/or reuse wherever possible
To support community beach litter initiatives or ‘anti-litter’ projects

Andy Cummins, SAS Campaigns Officer says: “Anyone can help us with this campaign. If you’re walking the dog on the beach and come across a plastic drink container for example, take it home, put it in a parcel and return it to the address listed on the bottle, not forgetting to enclose a copy of SAS’s campaign letter (downloadable here). http://www.sas.org.uk/campaign/marine_litter/index.php