Silent disco litter pick at Brighton beach

Around 100 people turned up to Brighton beach on Friday evening, picking up over a quarter of a ton of litter during a silent disco.

The event, organised by the Pier 2 Pier Beach Clean, tied in with the launch of the new #StreetsAhead campaign by Brighton and Hove City Clean and Hubbub UK which aims to encourage residents, businesses and tourists to act together reduce the amount of litter in Brighton and Hove.

The campaign urges visitors to the beach to: use the bin, not the pebbles, gutter or pavement; if you see some litter and you’re near a bin – pick it up; and if the bin is full, find another one or take your litter home.

Pier 2 Pier Beach Clean said the most common items found on the clean were plastic bottles, plastic straws, bottle lids, carrier bags and food packaging. All hard plastics found were collected by Terracycle to produce the world’s first recyclable shampoo bottles containing 25 per cent recycled marine plastics.

Organisers said it was recently predicted that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish, and already, 35 per cent of fish off the coast of Brighton have plastic in their gut. The Pier 2 Pier Beach Clean aims to make Brighton and Hove part of the solution, not the problem.

Organisers Amy Gibson and Dean Curtis said: "We’re so pleased that so many people got involved and were able to see just how much difference they can make in a short space of time – just by removing beach litter which could have easily made its way into the sea and harmed marine life”.

Among those taking part on Friday were organisations such as British Airways i360, Mooncup Ltd, Brighton Gin and University of Brighton.