More than 5,000 plastic bottles removed from west coach beaches

Sunday 20 February 2022

Womblers cleared Guernsey’s west coast of thousands of plastic bottles this weekend.

Mostly unopened 500ml bottles of mineral water began washing up on local beaches during the week. By Sunday evening, the island’s largest group of beachcombers was aware of 4,987 bottles collected from along the west coast. Hundreds more – possibly thousands – have been removed from beaches by people independent of the group.

Parts of the coast most affected include Vazon, Richmond, L’Erée and Fort Grey. But the single greatest haul may have been removed from Lihou Island, where the St. Saviour’s Church youth group alone found 566.

Pictured: A youth group from St. Saviour's Church made an impressive display of the number of plastic bottles they collected.

Plastic bottles are also being found on beaches in Jersey, France and the UK and there have been isolated reports of bottles in Sark. 

There remains uncertainty about how the bottles got onto beaches. Beachcombers in Guernsey who are in touch with beachcombers in the UK say the first sightings of the bottles were early last month. However, beachcombers in France report that containers full of plastic bottles were lost in a cargo spill in the Channel more recently. 

This week, wooden pallets washed up at Vazon together with plastic packaging branded by Avant, a bottled water distributed by the British company Navson.

Pictured: An empty pallet believed to have been carrying bottles of Avant mineral water on a cargo ship which lost part of its load. 

The efforts of dozens of islanders to clear beaches of bottles and dispose of them safely were commended by Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez, President of the States' Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure.

"On the one hand, the sheer volume of plastic bottles littering our coastline is a shocking sight," said Deputy De Sausmarez.

"But on the other hand, the incredible community effort in clearing the debris from our beaches has been nothing short of inspirational."

Pictured: Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, headed for the west coast when she heard of the influx of plastic bottles and thanked beachcombers for their "inspirational" clear up efforts.

Wombler Wendy Le Prevost joined the effort over the weekend. 

Speaking to Express on Sunday afternoon, she said islanders' response had been "amazing" and that "people have really pulled together and helped".

"The Guernsey grapevine soon gets word out and people love our beaches, marine life and wildlife. If picking up a few thousand plastic bottles is needed to save our beaches from plastic pollution, people step up and come to help," she said.

In a video posted earlier, she said: "We need to get as many of these water bottles off our beaches as we can whilst they are still full.

"Our beautiful Guernsey beaches are going to be littered with plastics, which is an environmental disaster. We are very close on the west coast to the Ramsar site [a wetland site designated to be of international importance].

"Anybody can get out, pick up a couple of bottles, empty the water and pop the empty bottles in your recycling at home."

Pictured (above and below): On Saturday, Diana Kennedy collected 392 plastic bottles from Vazon and Le Crocq.

Sam Reoch helps run the beachcombers' Facebook group 'Found on the Beach in Guernsey'.

Express spoke to her on Sunday when she was inundated with people providing her with updates on how many bottles they had collected and from where. She said she first spotted the bottles on Friday when she was cleaning at Grandes Rocques.

"I updated my group and it went a bit crazy from there as more and more people were looking for them and finding them," said Ms Reoch.

"People are messaging me left, right and centre and it’s a full-time job updating [the numbers collected]. Hence I didn’t head out west myself today. Lots of people were telling me where they were heading and asking which beaches haven't been reported.

"Most of the bottles are sealed with no labels. Some have algae on the side.

"They started washing up in the Isles of Scilly on 4 or 5 January. They are also washing up in England, France and Jersey, but not in the quantities that we are getting on the west coast."

Pictured: Beachcombers were seen filling car boots with plastic bottles to get them off beaches and into recycling bags and bins. 

Ms Reoch has messaged Avant to report the arrival of thousands of its bottles on Guernsey's shores.

"A pallet with the cellophane logos of Avant washed up at Vazon on Saturday - so we know they are from a pallet. What we don’t know is how many pallets," she said.

"One of our group members is a loader for the ferries and she says there are usually 1,000 to a pallet.  

"Our numbers [of bottles collected] are only from the people in my group - so many more are going unaccounted for, left at the top of slipways in the bins, taken away for recycling, etc.

"I’m sure we’ll see more, but hopefully it will be slowing right down."

Pictured: These images were supplied by Sam Reoch of the beachcombers' Facebook group 'Found on the Beach in Guernsey'. 

Richard Evans, Guernsey's Receiver of Wreck, told Express that he did not need to be notified of the plastic bottles but was grateful islanders had rallied around to clear them from the coast.

"I just had a look at the law and I don’t believe it needs reporting to the Receiver of Wreck," said Mr Evans.

"Even if it did, all I would say is collect them up and dispose of them by recycling.

"I don't know where they came from. Probably a container fell off a ship in the Channel." 

Pictured: Guernsey's Receiver of Wreck, Richard Evans.

Deputy De Sausmarez said that islanders' impressive efforts to clear the bottles off beaches was a reflection of the importance they place on the natural environment.

"It’s no coincidence that we’ve got one of the highest rates of recycling in the world: people in Guernsey – and indeed across the Bailiwick – really care about the natural environment that makes our island home so beautiful and they understand the impact that waste can have on our marine ecosystem in particular," said Deputy De Sausmarez.

"We’ve got a fantastically active wombling community that has grown and grown over the years with dedicated social media groups and various environmental organisations keeping our beaches clear of detritus and helping to protect our wildlife in the process."

Pictured: Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez took this image of blue recycling bags full of plastic bottles cleared from the beach at L’Erée.

Deputy De Sausmarez also said the spillage of thousands of plastic bottles served as a reminder of the challenges ahead to reduce the impact of environmentally unfriendly practices.

"Incidents like this are perhaps a good opportunity to reflect on what we can do as individuals to help prevent things like this happening in the first place," she said.

"I’m a bit baffled as to why single-use bottled water needs to be shipped at all to this part of the world, where we’re fortunate enough to have clean, safe drinking water freely available from every tap.

"The less we choose to buy, the less energy and fewer resources will be wasted in extracting, processing, manufacturing, transporting, refrigerating and finally disposing of this kind of single-use plastic. This means less expense for us as consumers, lower carbon emissions and ultimately less plastic to risk escaping into our environment to cause havoc."

Pictured: While at L’Erée, Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez spotted another dead dolphin. There have been several washed up on Guernsey's coast recently. On Friday, Express published more about these unfortunate events and the story can be read by clicking HERE.

Credit for unattributed images: Found on the Beach in Guernsey (beachcombers).