• Mountain Dew didn't like their Christmas Present!

  • SAS found this Minstrels wrapper in near pristine condition on Porthtowan Beach over Christmas 2010, Mars have since dated it from between 1980 and 1982! 30 years later..................

Take Action With Return To Offender

Last Updated Januray 2012

We are encouraging all our supporters to TAKE ACTION in 2012 and be an active part of SAS’s award winning anti beach litter campaign Return To Offender, which has now seen us send over 1000 items back to the producers. The Return To Offender campaign challenges companies whose litter is found on UK beaches to:

  • To step up ‘the anti-littering’ message on your products
  • To look at using less harmful packaging to ensure products can be broken down naturally without putting wildlife at risk
  • To promote recycling and/or reuse wherever appropriate
  • To support community beach litter initiatives or anti-litter projects

More successful than ever the campaign has been running continuously since 2006,  when we were  joined by top O’Neill pro surfers who temporarily stopped competing at the 6 star World Qualifying Series Highland Open surfing competition to contact companies whose litter had been found polluting the local beaches by SAS campaigners. Involved in the action were Team O’Neill surfers Nick Rozsa (USA), Noi Kaulukakui (USA), Hugo Savalli (Reunion), Duncan Scott (South Africa) andSam Lamiroy (UK). The surfers joined SAS in making a mass mobile phone-in from the beach to those companies identified from the litter collected.

Since it’s launch the Return To Offender campaign has gone from strength to strength; winning  the Coast award for best campaign in 2007 , returning almost 1000 items of identifiable marine litter, and even forcing the corporate giant that is Coca Cola to sit up and take notice . With your help this campaign can continue to make a real difference to what we find on our beaches, you’re not only an environmentalist, you’re a consumer, and so these big companies will listen to what you have to say. To get involved simply follow the steps below;

You Can Return To Offender

  • Keep an eye out for identifiable marine litter whenever you are at the beach
  • Download your own SAS Return To Offender campaign message (Word Doc format) and fill in the spaces with the details of where you found the beach litter
  • Download the Offender Addresses and find the manufacturer that makes your beach litter and post it off (take care to trace the big company that owns the brand, E.g. Cadbury is owned by Kraft!). We know postage can be expensive so we have also provided Freepost addresses for members of the “Dirty Dozen” worst offenders and some others
  • If you are able to,  please email  dom@sas.org.uk with photos and details of the litter you Return To Offender!

What we sent back this month

Over 50 Mountain Dew bottles, Unacceptable!

 SAS’s Dirty Dozen League Table – January 2012

The table below shows the worst offenders, those companies whose products we are finding the most on our precious beaches. We have had some encouraging resonses from companies like Haribo and Coca Cola, however our focus in 2012 will be on companies such as Pepsico UK and Bookers Ltd who have refused to take this issue seriously so far.

Parent Companies  Items Found
 Pepsico  167
 Coca Cola  112
 Kraft  84
 Nestle  76
 Mars  48
 United Biscuits  47
 Tesco  46
 Unilever  31
 Booker  25
 Glaxosmithkline (Lucozade)  22
 In Bev/Anhesuer Busch  21
 Carlsberg  20

If you have any queries on the Return To Offender campaign please email dom@sas.org.uk or call 01872 553 001