Gaskells has joined up with the Friends of Crosby Beach volunteer group for a special clean-up of Liverpool’s iconic Crosby Beach, in the first of a number of community initiatives we’ll be taking part in across all areas we work in.
Under the gaze of Antony Gormley’s iconic Iron Men, 20 of our staff , along with some of their children, donned T shirts, gloves, and armed with litter picking sticks and bags spent two hours patrolling the beach on very sunny Sunday afternoon, collecting rubbish. Along with it being unsightly, more importantly, if it’s not removed, it’s washed back out to sea, polluting the water and harming marine life.
Over the two hours, we covered approximately half a mile of the beach, recovering more than 15 bags of rubbish washed up by the sea, or left behind by people after a day out. We found empty beer bottles, BBQs, gas canisters, lots of plastic bottles, balloons, plastic roses, a football, a big sponge, baby wipes, etc. We also spoke to a lot of people who were curious as to what we were doing, and why, so helped to spread a positive message.
Our Sales Manager Gary said “It was a great afternoon, everyone really enjoyed it, but it was also tinged with a bit of disgust at what people leave on the beach.”
This is the first of many litter-picks and other initiatives we’ll be doing as a company to promote sustainability, recycling, and the importance of binning your rubbish.
Commercial Director at Gaskells Waste Denise Banks said “We’re delighted to have joined up with the Friends of Crosby Beach group, in what will be the first of many similar litter picks we’ll be doing across the areas we work in. Along with cleaning up, we hope to educate people about the importance of sustainability, as it’s at the heart of everything we do. We also like to give back to the community as much as we can, and as a Liverpool based company, where better to do our first of these events than the stunning Crosby Beach?”
Did you know?
- Beach litter is currently at its highest level since records began. According to the Great British Beach Clean, there are nearly 2,500 pieces of litter for every kilometre of beach, up 140% since 1994.
- Data from the 2017 Great British Beach Clean revealed a startling 94% rise in the number of wet wipes found on UK beaches – yuk!
- Cigarette stubs are continuously in the top ten of all litter retrieved from beaches.
- One Tesco Currant bag, recovered from Crosby beach this year was dated back to the 1970s, demonstrating clearly how plastic doesn’t degrade.
Thank you to Dave Rawlinson for some great photos from the day.