Volunteers clear 1.3 tonnes of rubbish from North Devon beaches in 2024

Hard-working volunteers have removed more than 1.3 tonnes of waste from popular local beaches in just 12 months thanks to ongoing dedication by Plastic Free North Devon (PFND) and its partners.

The environmental charity organises and supports regular beach cleans at Saunton Sands, Woolacombe and Croyde as well as Instow, working with beach owners, local companies, surf clubs plus local and national organisations.

The Big Saunton Beach Clean is now in its seventh year and in 2024 alone, across seven events, 432 volunteers removed 850 kilos of rubbish from the beach. Since 2018 the Saunton events have involved almost 3,500 volunteers and 50 beach cleans, which picked up more than four tonnes of waste and litter.

The rubbish collected continues to be a combination of large amounts of fishing-related debris, food packaging, plastic bottles, cans, micro plastics, cigarette butts, disposable vapes and more.

Above: Just some of the rubbish collected by volunteers at a recent Saunton beach clean. Credit: PFND

PFND said the ‘most frightening’ aspect is not so much the amount of litter, but how old it is and the amount of smaller and smaller pieces it is breaking into, which of course can be consumed by marine life and make its way into the food we consume.

It said while beach cleaning alone will not fix this, it continues to make a real difference to the amount of plastics found on beaches that are cleaned regularly.

The results from the other local beaches cleaned in 2024 saw 55 volunteers at Instow remove 90kg of rubbish over two events, while 109kg was removed from Croyde by 165 volunteers over five events.

Plastic Free Woolacombe and North Devon National Trust saw 433 volunteers collect 222kg of waste from Woolacombe beach.

Claire Moodie, chief executive or ‘SEA-E-O’ of PFND said: “We find much less littered rubbish, particularly in the winter months, which continues to remind us that the ocean doesn't abide by the boundaries set by Governments and that it will take global collaboration to tackle the ongoing and growing plastics problem.

“This growing network of coastal clean ups is an example of what can be achieved with the active involvement of our community volunteers and supportive local stakeholders.”

Beach cleaning season kicks off again in April, with PFND running cleans at Instow and Saunton and supporting regular events at Croyde and Woolacombe and promoting several more. See below for the full list.

The clean ups also collect evidence that helps inform national organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage and the Marine Conservation Society. 

They regularly collect and log shark egg case findings with the Shark Trust, helping it to record more than 250 species this year alone.

If you are particularly interested in being part of this ‘citizen science’ aspect, please email info@plasticfreenorthdevon.org.

Some local beach clean locations provide free hot drinks (bring your reusable cup) and all beach cleaning equipment is provided, though by all means bring your own if you have it.

You can keep up to date on all the PFND events at www.plasticfreenorthdevon.org and on its Facebook and Instagram pages.

North Devon beach cleaning schedule 2025

Saunton – Sundays 11am-1pm, free parking and hot drinks supplied by Saunton Break Café. April 13; May 25; June 22; September 7; October 19; November 23.

Instow – Saturdays 11am-1pm, free parking and hot drinks supplied by The Glorious Oyster. May 31; October 25.

Croyde – Saturday, April 19, 11am-1pm; Sunday, May 25, 10am-12pm; Saturday, July 19, 10am-12pm; Saturday, September 20, 10am-12pm.

Woolacombe - Plastic Free Woolacombe and North Devon National Trust run monthly beach cleans from Mill Rock on Sunday, April 27, 10.30am; Sunday, May 25, 1pm; Sunday, June 29, 1pm; Sunday, July 27, 1pm; Sunday, August 31, 1pm; Sunday, September 28, 1pm; Sunday, October 26, 10.30am; Sunday, November 30, 10.30am; Wednesday, December 24, 10am.

Westward Ho! - Regular cleans organised by Northam Burrows Country Park – visit www.torridge.gov.uk/northamburrowsevents