Litter: Kids cleaning up beaches to help the environment

This week people up and down the UK have been heading to the beach, but it's not for a paddle or a sunbathe, but to help the environment.

It's the Great British Beach Clean event run by the Marine Conservation Society to try and reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in the sea.

People are encouraged to take a 100m stretch of beach and collect, and log, all the rubbish that they find in a special survey.

The results are then used for research into what type of litter is being dropped and where the worst areas are.

Litter on the beach can get washed out to sea

The project has been running for 26 year and last year nearly 11,000 volunteers took part.

The Marine Conservation Society has been working hard to try and reduce the amount of plastic ending up in the world's oceans.

This year is has been slightly different because of coronavirus restrictions but lots of people have been getting involved and have found that items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like disposable gloves and masks are being dropped as litter.

Dr Laura Foster, Head of Clean Seas at the Marine Conservation Society said: "Single use plastic has been used increasingly during the pandemic, but we need to ensure this is not a permanent backwards step."

Plastic in the ocean can cause huge problems for wildlife