Clearing Champ Rouget of litter during Beachwatch weekend 2010

September 24th, 2010 by Richard Lord

The bay to the north of Chouet on the north coast of Guernsey is a collection trap for objects that float in from the sea.  Beachwatch volunteers wore gloves and collected litter in flexible plastic tubs.  This is preferable to using plastic bags, which adds to what needs to be disposed in the landfill.

Plastic bottles and large plastic containers were made of recyclable plastic No. 1 (PET, PETE) and No. 2 (HDPE) These were taken to the nearby Mont Cuet bring bank for recycling.  The aluminium cans were also recycled.  Metal went to the Longue Hougue waste recycling facility.  Nylon twine, rope and string can be used around the house and in the garden.

Cigarette lighters and pieces of Styrofoam and polyurethane have been found on every Champ Rouget beach clean during the last three years. We found three tennis and rubber balls as well as a weighted cloth toy for throwing for a dog.  We collected a full bucket of plastic sheeting and plastic bags.

Beach clean volunteers with what they collected on the shore at Champ Rouget during Beachwatch weekend (click image to expand)

The following items were collected from a 100 yard stretch of the Champ Rouget shore during the Beachwatch beach clean:

• 54 plastic bottles
• 6 large plastic containers
• 2 milk cartons
• 18 aluminium cans
• 7 pieces of nylon strapping
• 1 car tire
• 3 broken crab pots
• 10 pieces of metal
• 1 lead acid battery
• About 100 crisp wrappers and sweet wrappers
• 2 pieces of clothing
• 1 rubber glove
• 3 plastic cigarette lighters
• 3 pieces of painted timber
• 3 rubber balls and 1 green dog toy (for playing fetch)
• About 100 lbs. of nylon twine and rope used by the fishing industry
• 10 pieces of black rubber (cut car tires) about 2 feet in length each used as wrapping for crab pots and for securing door to pots
• 200 small pieces of Styrofoam + and polyurethane (up to 1 foot in length)
• 1 plastic chair leg
• 1 broken plastic basket
• 14 pieces of hard plastic (broken containers, broken bits of plastic hardware unidentifiable etc)
• One bucket of plastic sheeting, plastic pieces, plastic bags.
• 2 shoes not belonging to each other
• A number of small lolly pop sticks
• A number of plastic bottle tops that were not screwed onto a bottle

Litter, broken fishing gear, and Nylon rope and twine collected from the Champ Rouget shore during Beachwatch weekend (click image to expand)

Plasting sheeting and plastic bags collect on the Champ Rouget sea shore during the Beachwatch beach clean (click image to expand)