Surfers Against Sewage calls for action from mountain summits to city streets, from riverbanks to coastlines, to help stop plastic polluting our ocean

• The Big Spring Beach Clean is the UK’s biggest beach clean event, mobilising over 30,000 authentic community volunteers at locations nationwide
• This year, mountain cleans are included for the first time, alongside beach, river and city locations
• Evidence shows that over 70% of plastic pollution comes from the land, meaning that we can all be beach clean volunteers wherever we are
• Alongside removing plastic from the natural spaces around us, volunteers will conduct the UK’s biggest ever Plastic Pollution Audit to help further track and tackle plastic pollution to stop it at source
• Sign up to Lead a Clean today by using SAS’s Step by Step Guide.

From the 6^th to the 14^th of April, we, in conjunction with the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation, will mobilise more than 30,000 volunteers at 500 beach, river, city and mountain locations across the UK in its Big Spring Beach Clean: Summit to Sea. We are calling for inspired community leaders from all walks of life to help remove and track plastic pollution in their local area.

The Big Spring Beach Clean is the UK’s biggest coordinated beach clean activity, which has brought together over 150,000 volunteers over the last five years, contributing an incredible two million hours of volunteer time to protecting and conserving our beaches for everyone to enjoy. These vital community events not only remove dangerous plastics from our unique and precious coastal environment, but also indicate where action needs to be taken further upstream to reduce the leakage into and impact of plastics on our ocean and beaches.

A recent report showed that plastic makes up 70 per cent of all the litter in the ocean, and if no action is taken to reduce its input, then it is forecast to treble within the next ten years[1].

Almost a decade ago, we pioneered the Plastic Pollution Audit at our beaches to identify which plastics were washing up on our tidelines. This year we are conducting the research again to map and monitor plastics, and signpost where urgent action needs to be taken to reduce plastic pollution.

Hugo Tagholm, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage says “The Big Spring Beach Clean is an annual celebration of our beaches, uniting thousands of like-minded volunteers to take action for our ocean. We are excited to be working with the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation to invite anyone, anywhere to lead a community clean-up with us to tackle plastic pollution. We can all be ocean guardians from our summits to the sea, from our river banks to city streets. Register your event today.”

Richard Walker, Trustee of the Iceland Charitable Food Foundation said “Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and Surfers Against Sewage share a common passion for tackling the scourge of plastic head on, and we know that this is an issue that resonates with an ever-growing number of people. Our Iceland stores are at the heart of high streets up and down the country and we recruit our store colleagues locally, making us a true community retailer. We are delighted to be backing SAS in encouraging individuals and organisations throughout the UK to help make a difference to the quality of their local environment through The Big Spring Beach Clean.”

We hope to engage a wide range of people to take part in protecting the ocean from summit to sea.

Individuals can find their nearest clean or volunteer to lead their own at www.sas.org.uk or by emailing [email protected]. All Clean Leaders will receive a Big Spring Beach Clean kit, a limited edition SAS insulated Hydroflask, a step-by-step guide to organizing their clean, along with support and guidance from the SAS Team in organising their event.

We would like to thank Partners the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation, Hydro Flask, and Community Partners; Surfing England, British Canoeing, Canoe Foundation, The Wave Project and the Outdoor Swimming Society.