Second JEP beach-clean to take place in July

Second JEP beach-clean to take place in July

The event, the second of its kind, has grown this year to include nine beaches and is due to take place at 10am on 14 July at various locations around the Island.

Each beach has been sponsored by a local business or organisation, which will lead the efforts to rid it of rubbish.

Sponsors this year are the Channel Islands Co-operative Society, Jersey Electricity, Pinnacle, Affinity, Blue Ocean Bond Fund, Alexander Forbes, C5 Alliance, Butterfield and JP Restaurants.

Rubbish found at Green Island (24939753)

The Jersey Probation and Aftercare Service will also clean Bouley Bay as they did last year. Members of the public are also invited to join the groups by turning up at one of the beaches for the event. Equipment will be provided and all those taking part will be given a 500ml reuseable, recyclable and BPA-free (Bisphenol-A is an estrogen-imitating chemical used to produce reusable plastic) water bottle provided by Jersey Water.

The beaches due to be cleaned are St Brelade’s Bay, La Rocque, the Gunsite, Bel Royal, Le Braye (and surrounding areas), Havre des Pas, Gorey, Bonne Nuit and Bouley Bay.

Next month’s event follows an unprecedented drive to clean up as much of the Island’s countryside as possible – the inaugural JEP Countryside Clean-Up joined by dozens of Islanders in April.

And last year’s Coastal Clean-Up attracted Islanders of all ages who collected more than 240kg of rubbish, which was taken to La Collette for recycling where possible.

The most common finds were plastic fishing twine, cigarette butts and bottles. Much of the waste was found tangled in seaweed lying along the shore. The most unusual item to be found was a fully packaged haggis.

Charles Troy, who leads the JEP’s ecoJersey team, said: ‘Thanks to the amazing support we received from our supporting launch partner businesses and the wider community, over half a ton of litter was collected across just a fraction of the Island’s lanes and headlands in our recent Countryside Clean-Up. As a result of the popularity and success of the event in April – and the fact that so many people are keen to take positive action to support environmental initiatives – we’re now focusing on our precious coastline and the precarious state of our marine environment.

‘Building on the sterling work long carried out by Islanders and local organisations, such as Littlefeet Environmental, Jersey Marine Conservation and more recently Plastic Free Jersey, in both raising awareness of marine pollution and doing something about it, we look forward to seeing many Islanders getting involved. Positive environmental change relies on the community coming together and all of us acting.’

It is estimated that around eight million tons of plastic end up in the world’s seas every year.

Last year, researcher Adam Dallas-Chapman surveyed ten local beaches and found microplastics in every section of every bay he looked at.

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