Easy Ways to Keep Our Beaches Clean

Join us as we take a look at some of the easiest ways you can help to keep your local beaches clean and safe.

Here at SEA LIFE Blackpool, we hold monthly beach-cleans where we encourage people to help us remove the plastic and litter that has been unfortunately left on the beach. It’s a distressing fact that there are around 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean – this alone can kill around 1 million sea birds each year.

It’s time we wake up and realise the harmful impact that our behaviour can have on the planet. With that in mind, to coincide with National Clean Beaches Week, we thought it would be useful to outline some of the things we can all do to help keep our beaches clean.

Grab Your Picnic Baskets

Who doesn’t love a good picnic on a hot summer's day by the beach? Think ahead and try to minimise the amount of plastic you bring with you. Instead, try to use reusable bags and containers when possible!

Bring your own bags with you so you can clean up all of your rubbish afterwards. Most beaches won’t have bins, so by bringing your own bin bags, you can easily collect all your rubbish together to take to the nearest bin.

Beaches can be windy sometimes, so try to find a closed bin where rubbish won’t fly out!

Keep Dogs at Bay

Dogs are pretty big fans of the beach too, and they love a good paddle in the shore!

As pet owners, we need to be aware of the messes we make ourselves (as human beings), but we should also ensure that we clean up after our pets too. Pet-waste can pollute waters, and it's also not nice for anybody to step into, so make a point of picking up after your pets, and make sure you throw it all away.

Butt Really?

It may not be widely known, but cigarette butts can have a detrimental effect on our beaches.

Cigarette butts are made from a type of plastic that takes years to degrade, and during that process they release harmful toxins – exposing beaches and their marine life. Encourage smokers to smoke away from the beach, and ensure that they properly throw their cigarette butts away once finished.

Take Part in Beach-Cleans!

The best way to keep a beach clean is to keep it nice and tidy as you go along! If you live near a beach, or just fancy doing a good deed for the day, why not take part in a beach-clean?

Beach-cleans can be entirely rewarding, because you’re consciously helping to protect our wider planet as well as your local area, and they can be a great opportunity to meet new friends.

Our monthly beach-cleans are held in association with Love My Beach, the Marine Conservation Society, the Environment Agency, and Blackpool Council. As an extra bonus, anyone who helps out will get free entry to SEA LIFE Blackpool – sounds good to us!

Get in touch with your local council or Love My Beach to see if there’s a beach-clean you can get involved in near you.

Life’s a Beach!

If you’re planning on going to the beach this summer, ensure you have fun that won’t harm the natural environment.

Take a look at our latest guide on rockpooling to see how you can safely discover some of the ocean’s many inhabitants, and find out more about our Breed Rescue Protect programme alongside the many initiatives we have put in place to help conserve our planet.