Silent disco beach clean attracts volunteers in North Devon

Beachgoers are swapping boogie boards for a boogie beach clean to help protect nature in Devon.

Silent disco beach cleans at the National Trust’s Woolacombe beach are encouraging people to get grooving whilst helping clean up the coastline.

Organisers wanted to broaden the appeal of beach cleans by adding a new twist to attract both new and younger volunteers.

The numbers turning up to help tackle damaging plastic waste and litter have increased since introducing tune-filled headphones, with one event welcoming nearly 100 people.

The three-mile long beach is a haven for surfers and bodyboarders, and during the summer months can welcome 10,000 visitors a day.

Volunteer Louise Gavin said: “It’s great to be able to come out and help the local community to keep the beaches clean and how you would like them for yourself.

“It’s important to us to help the local wildlife in any way that we can and work to prevent more plastic from getting into the ocean.”

Monthly cleans make the coastal location a safer home for marine wildlife including seabirds such as gannets and puffins, and marine mammals like dolphins and seals, and a more beautiful clean place for people to visit.

North Devon National Trust ranger Fraser Goodfellow said: “We’ve been running monthly beach cleans at Woolacombe for over a year and uptake can vary widely.

“Now, with the addition of North Devon Silent Disco, a mix of people from the local community and holidaymakers of all ages, including families and young people, are coming together in a communal effort to keep the beach clean and healthy.

“Nearly half who come along haven’t done a beach clean before and it’s fantastic to see a wider range of people volunteering their time to get stuck in.

“We want to say a huge thank you to them all for their hard work; with a constant stream of marine waste and litter arriving across our shores, cleaning up our coastline has never been more important.”

Litter has always been a big problem on beaches and in the countryside, as it is hugely damaging to the wildlife and environment.

Unsurprisingly, plastic is the most common material washed ashore at Woolacombe, with a staggering 90% of beach rubbish collected in 2019 being plastic or polystyrene.

Recent litter finds at Woolacombe include a coke can dating from 2020 and originating in Denmark, plastic shopping bags from the 1990s and a plastic fairy liquid bottle with the price marked in shillings which were phased out in the 1970s.

Deborah Vos, from environmental charity Plastic Free Woolacombe, said: “These items show the permanent nature of plastic in our natural surroundings and the sheer scale of the problem we face to clear up our shores.

“By holding events like these at Woolacombe we aim to connect people with their natural surroundings to ensure residents, communities and visitors alike want to protect what our very existence depends on."