We’re just like you – we love our oceans. We’d like to see them better protected for the future for everyone. We’re a charity that is focused on creating great community projects and campaigns that you can get involved with to do just this.
Connection with the Ocean
We were borne out of people’s visceral connection with the sea and their response to the pollution ruining our coastlines, whether that is sewage pollution or throwaway plastics. This direct connection with the ocean is what makes us unique and drives us in our mission for cleaner seas.
Surfers Against Sewage doesn’t describe exactly what we do anymore! Together, we’re much more than our name suggests. We’ve made great progress on cleaning up our beaches from sewage and the cleanliness of our seas remains in the DNA of the organisation. But our new priority issue is marine plastic pollution. We work on other issues too – climate change, water quality, coastal development, but plastic pollution is huge and needs a lot of attention!
How do we do this?
With you! Building a community through education, volunteering, beach cleans, campaigns, parliamentary events and advocacy to create the change we want to see for the future. Together we are a community of over 300,000 people united for our coastlines.
Join the Movement
We’d love to hear from you so do get in touch whether you want to volunteer at a beach clean, support a campaign, meet up with your local Regional Rep or access a Beach Clean Box to hold an event. It’s our supporters that make it all possible so please do join us!
Successes & Challenges
- 98.5% of England’s bathing waters passed the Bathing Water Directive’s minimum standards in 2016, compared to what would have been only 27% in 1990 when Surfers Against Sewage started campaigning.
- Surfers Against Sewage supporters helped campaign for the plastic bag charge which has already taken out over 6 billion plastic bags from the environment!
- Throwaway plastic pollution is SAS’s new sewage. 12 million tonnes of marine litter and plastic enter the oceans every year.
- Our beach clean volunteer community is the biggest in the UK!
- Over 225,000 people have joined us in calling for a deposit return system to stop plastic bottle pollution.
- We also believe that waves and surf spots deserve to be seen as part of UK heritage and should be afforded greater recognition and protection through political debate and legislation.
How we work
- We create volunteering opportunities for individuals and communities to be involved with activities to safeguard our seas, coastlines and beaches.
- We talk to the government on key issues affecting oceans, beaches and recreational water users and advocate policies needed to deliver a cleaner and safer marine environment.
- We educate communities on the achievable, sustainable solutions, which can help protect our waves, oceans and beaches.
- We challenges industry to adopt better standards to protect our coastal environment.
- We promotes scientific, economic and health evidence to support calls for a cleaner and safer marine environment.
- We engage the general public on issues affecting UK waves, oceans and beaches, and those that use them.