{"id":3146,"date":"2011-08-03T14:31:06","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T13:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatsonni.com\/blog\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2011-08-03T14:31:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T13:31:06","slug":"%e2%80%98bag-it-bin-it-don%e2%80%99t-flush-it%e2%80%99-say-beach-clean-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2011\/08\/%e2%80%98bag-it-bin-it-don%e2%80%99t-flush-it%e2%80%99-say-beach-clean-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bag It, Bin It, Don\u2019t Flush It\u2019 say beach clean volunteers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Marine Conservation Society volunteers hit Loughshore Park beach on Sunday to remove and survey its litter.\u00a0 The 36 volunteers removed a grand total of 1620 items of litter from the short piece of coastline, including 156 cigarette stubs, 58 plastic bottles, 117 food wrappers and 33 drink cans!\u00a0 Fortunately, the group was this time joined by teams from Virtual Visit Northern Ireland, WhatsOnNI.com, Newtownabbey Borough Council, The Art of Living and Bryson House Recycling.\u00a0 Coca-cola, the sponsor of Tidy Northern Ireland, donated soft drinks for the clean-up volunteers.\u00a0 Amanda Wilson, the organiser of the clean-up said, \u201cIt was brilliant to have the support of so many organisations that are concerned about the Northern Irish coastline.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe council litter picks the beaches regularly however it is a constant battle. \u00a0Events such as this, organized by Amanda, raises awareness of the problems facing our marine environment\u201d, said Lindsay Matthews, Biodiversity Officer for Newtownabbey Borough Council.\u00a0 Thomas McVea, the founder of Virtual Visit- NI said, “We have used our 360 capture technique to great effect on many of the great beaches that we have in NI. The presence of litter reduces the aesthetic appeal of a beach thus impacting on tourism.\u00a0 We want be able to come back time and again to recapture and update our online visitors with the beauty of our beaches and show them off as they should be seen.”<\/p>\n

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Volunteers at last Sunday's beach clean at Loughshore with the Marine Conservation Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Marine Conservation Society is currently supporting the \u2018Bag it, Bin it, Don\u2019t Flush It\u2019 campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the problems caused when items such as wet wipes, cotton buds, sanitary towels and other plastic items are flushed down toilets.\u00a0 Not only are these items unsightly, but they can be ingested by marine wildlife, preventing them from feeding and ultimately resulting in their death.\u00a0 Within an hour of litter collection at Loughshore, the group had removed 185 cotton buds, 157 wet wipes and 46 other items believed to have been flushed down the toilet.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s clear that many people don\u2019t realise the damage they are doing to our coastline.\u00a0 Wet wipes and other plastic items should never be flushed down the toilet.\u00a0 These wipes can also block your household sewerage systems, costing up to \u00a3250 to rectify\u201d said Amanda.\u00a0 Despite some wet-wipe packets claiming these items are flushable they don\u2019t actually dissolve like toilet paper and can damage household sewerage systems.<\/p>\n

The Marine Conservation Society Volunteers are currently gearing up for Beachwatch Big Weekend, a UK-wide litter survey and beach clean happening from 16-19th<\/sup> September.\u00a0\u00a0 With 23 beach cleans happening in Northern Ireland during the Big Weekend, there are plenty to choose from!\u00a0 To get involved with future beach cleans or to organise your own clean-up, please contact Amanda at manda_wilson@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marine Conservation Society volunteers hit Loughshore Park beach on Sunday to remove and survey its litter.\u00a0 The 36 volunteers removed a grand total of 1620 items of litter from the short piece of coastline, including 156 cigarette stubs, 58 plastic bottles, 117 food wrappers and 33 drink cans!\u00a0 Fortunately, the group was this time … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1527,1523,1524,1525,1526,779],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3149,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions\/3149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}