Action Against Litter Newsletter – Issue 7

Welcome to our quarterly newsletter, reflecting on the past season and looking ahead to the next. Newsletters will be published in March, June, September and December each year.

The plastic problem

Every year, over 8 million tonnes of plastic litter enters the world’s oceans. Some of this comes from ‘ocean dumping’, when large amounts of waste is illegally tipped into the sea, but most plastic in the ocean is not dumped there on purpose. Around 80% comes from the land, much of it blown in from where people have littered.

As well as the impact on marine life, mammals such as hedgehogs are also injured by getting caught up in plastic waste.

At Thanet District Council, we are committed to doing what we can to prevent more plastics entering our seas. Read on to find out how we have been tackling litter over the summer and the measures we have introduced.

Did you visit Thanet’s coastline this summer?

The summer season saw thousands of residents and visitors flocking to the 19 mile coastline to enjoy the sunny weather and beautiful scenery.

Busy days on Margate Main Sands and Viking Bay in Broadstairs saw up to 20,000 people visit the beach, which of course puts extra pressure on the teams working to keep the Isle clean.

The council’s Street Cleansing team responded to the increased demand during the summer season, by:

• Increasing the amount of general waste bins along the coastline to 150, with 841 in the whole of Thanet.
• Introducing 30 additional recycling bins along the coastline, with 90 in the whole of Thanet.
• Employing 18 additional seasonal staff each day, with more staff at weekends, bank holidays, extra hot days and when there are special events in Thanet.
• A total of 403.5 hours were worked each day, by 44 operatives on streets and beaches. They emptied street litter bins every day, with bins at the most popular beaches emptied up to three times a day.
• In July and August 2024, 1,012.62 tonnes of rubbish were collected, in addition to 19.62 tonnes of dry recycling.
• Street cleansing and the coastal officers prevented numerous breaches of the Public Spaces Protection Order by clearing our promenades by working closely together.

The Beach and Coast team patrolled the coastline seven days a week during the summer season. They cover all of the district’s bays and beaches and support organised litter picking events. During this season the team helped by distributing over 1,000 rubbish bags to beach users, and refilling bags at litter stations. In summer 2024, Southern Water funded 5,000 bags for the litter bag stations pictured below.

Refill don’t replace!

Each year in the UK, 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought each year, more than 175 bottles per person. Just imagine all of those stacked up!

New drinking water fountains were installed at beach locations in Ramsgate and Broadstairs this year,in an effort to reduce single use plastics. Two further drinking water fountains are planned for Ramsgate and Margate, bringing the total number in the district to six.

This was the culmination of a three year project in collaboration with the community group Rise Up Clean Up (RUCU) in Margate. The new drinking fountains have been supported by a number of organisations including Rise Up Clean Up Margate, Refill, City to Sea, Sea-Changers, Southern Water, Broadstairs Town Council, Ramsgate Town Council and Thanet District Council.

Bring your reusable bottle and refill it at one of our stations. You can stay hydrated, and know you are having an impact in reducing plastics ending up in our oceans.
You can use the Refill app to find where other refill stations are. refill.org.uk/

Beach toy recycling

We have installed beach toy recycling sites at some of our most popular beaches. Beach users can donate unwanted buckets and spades, or any left behind on the beaches, for the next day’s visitors to use. The aim is to reduce the amount of plastic that is thrown away, or entering the sea. Beach toy recycling sites are in place at:

• Minnis Bay
• St Mildred’s Bay
• Westbrook Bay
• Margate Main Sands
• Joss Bay
• Botany Bay
• Viking Bay
• Ramsgate Main Sands