Changes in beach clean finds by EQUANS

EQUANS is a utilities company that provides low-carbon energy solutions.

They have supported Sussex Wildlife Trust through the 'Work for Wildlife' work parties since 2019 and recently took part in their fourth corporate beach clean in three years as their team awayday. 

This year team member Graham Batty tells us about the day as well as the differences they have found between beaches they have surveyed over the years:

"Sixteen members of the BS Technical team arrived on Ovingdean beach in early September to carry out a beach clean. We were met by Julia Hoare of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, who had set up the day for us.

After a health and safety briefing, we began our beach clean, on a 100-meter stretch of beach, opposite the Grand Hotel. 

In previous years doing the collection at Ovingdean Beach we collected numerous fishing items, machined wood and plastics. This year we were in party central with the majority of items picked being made up of 274 beer bottle tops, 78 champagne corks, sweet wrappers and plastic caps and small plastic fragments.

The team surveyed 1,336 items of beach litter weighing over 14.83 kg. Not only this, but our presence inspired some local people to get involved. We even had our photograph taken by a Spanish journalist.

Amongst our finds were over 250 small pieces of plastic. This is really significant because these are the items that, unless they are removed from the beaches, will degrade into smaller microplastics which are very damaging to the environment. They are likely to be ingested and passed on in the food chain of both aquatic and terrestrial organisms. The microplastics won’t decompose but degrade further and remain a long term environmental issue."

Many thanks to the EQUANS team for their hard work. More here about beach cleans with Sussex Wildlife Trust