Arbroath pupils weigh in with 65kg to start East Coast beach clean

Arbroath primary school pupils have weighed in with a mammoth effort to start this year’s Great Angus Beach Clean.

On Friday morning, Ladyloan youngsters tackled a stretch in front of the town’s Inchcape Park.

And they quickly gathered almost 65 kilos of rubbish from the rocks and beach near the harbour.

Wendy Murray of Angus Clean Environments expects the figure to rise dramatically as local volunteers take to the coast this weekend.

Ladyloan pupils take part in beach clean at Arbroath. — Combing the rocks for marine debris. Image: Kim Cessford / DC Thomson

Debris from the likes of Storm Babet almost a year ago continues to wash up along the Angus Coast.

And the area around Carnoustie is still seeing the signs of a 30-metre break in a main sewer pipe.

It was fractured by spring tides after Babet near the Buddon golf course and involved a major repair operation.

Tide of marine litter

Wendy said: “It’s been a challenging year since the winter storms.

“We are still collecting debris, particularly small pieces of polystyrene and an excess of sewage-related debris which SEPA think may be as a result of the break in the Carnoustie pipe.”

Wendy said the pupils had played a vital part in the latest clean-up.

“They collected a huge amount of plastic and metals weighing 64.9kgs,” she added.

“The most unusual item was a vehicle exhaust unit.”

Lauren Smith from Turning the Plastic Tide was involved with youngsters.

“We spent time with them afterwards going through what they had found and getting them to think about how long each item would take to biodegrade in the sea and the damage they do to wildlife,” said Wendy.