This Is Not Right. It’s Rubbish. Wrong.
Today was such a beautiful day, the hottest of the year.
We headed to the beach.
What we found was utterly disgusting. Shameful and sadly absolutely not necessary.
Barry beach in South Wales is lovely, it’s undergone a regeneration programme over the past few years and has oodles to offer for families, tourists and those whom love the ocean.
The beach was packed today and the utter disregard that sun seekers took to it was just awful.
Myself and the 11 year old walked twenty paces, TWENTY!!, and picked up what we could…. it really was shocking.
Where’s the respect? What goes through people’s minds? I don’t understand why people would want to leave this behind.
It’s wrong.
If you fancy a day out and insist on making this kind of mess then do in your own garden, in your car, in your space.
This is not nice, not right and not acceptable.
Barry beach is beautiful, unfortunately today it was tarred by humans who do not deserve it.
There are plenty of bins. Use them. Take your rubbish home. Don’t do this.
Please don’t let this put you off visiting the beach. Along with Barry Island there are hoards of beautiful beaches along the South Wales coast to visit. Here’s our guide to the Best Beaches in South Wales.
Beachcomber Bucket
We often take a bag to the beach and fill it up with beachcomber items to make our own beach art before taking that rubbish we’ve collected home to dispose of correctly. And this is our ‘Beachcomber Bucket’.
Being a bucket it means that the kids can play with the bucket, make sandcastles with it, pail water for their moats, collect driftwood and shells and then earn themselves a treat by filling their buckets with rubbish in exchange for an ice cream… You were gonna buy an ice cream anyway so why not make it a worthy reward both for them and for the good of the ocean?
Do note, industrial gloves can be purchased from pound stores if you’re worried about sharps, etc but beach combing can be carried out quite safely with some simple rules given. You could specify that only adults pick up glass, and kids only pick up plastic bottles, lids and rubbish that can be ‘seen’ to be safe. Young children can be supervised. Kids will happily beach comb regardless so why not use it to make them aware of the environment and help them have a fulfilling feeling that they’re doing their much valued bit for the planet too?
As an example here is the kind of thing that can be done with bottle tops alone and you get the satisfaction the you’ve rid the beach of lots of junk that will last a lifetime in the sea..
There are plenty of beach activities that don’t pollute our beautiful shores.
There’s way too much rubbish on our shores but with a little fun we can teach kids that it’s not right!
Whenever we go for a walk round our area my husband and I take a litter picker and two bags – one for plastic, one for aluminium. The rest of the litter has to stay and rot, as I’m not prepared to fish through smelly bags to sort it out. As our walk takes us past the two secondary schools, we generally fill both bags to the brim during termtime, but now the school playing fields are fenced off we can’t reach the litter that blows off them against their side of the fence.
I’m playing with the idea of encouraging one the schools, through our local councillor, to charge an extra few pence for every bottle and can in the tuck shop, with a refund on return. If not everyone bothered to bring their items back, it would encourage entrepreneurship among others – as refunds on glass bottles did when I was young. I’d be willing to make a small donation, to “seed” the project, though I wonder whether the more enterprising / less conscientious might bring items in from outside too – but then, why not?!
Any improvements / suggestions?
Hi – I work for Wales Online. Can I speak to someone about this post please? My email is tyler.mears@walesonline.co.uk. Thanks, Tyler.
It is disgusting but don’t blame the council. They do a good job at Barry. I walk my dogs, like hundreds of others, throughout the autumn, winter and spring. You rarely see dog mess on the beach but we are banned in the summer….in case our dogs leave a mess! Time for a reality check, here I think.
What, if someone stands on the entrance of the beach and hands out rubbish bags. I’ll help.