Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Great Angus beach clean exposes shocking scale of coastal crisis

Post Thumbnail

The Great Angus Beach Clean delivered a bittersweet weekend outcome as a huge community response revealed the horrific scale of pollution along the area’s busy and popular coast.

Tonnes of rubbish collected by hundreds of volunteers over three days will be taken away on Monday and organisers said the mountain of waste was a worrying indication of the scale of the environmental issue on the local doorstep.

Primary school youngsters helped launch the initiative which tackled the coast between Carnoustie and Arbroath in the largest coastal clean-up ever held in the area.

Over the weekend, locals were joined by environmentally conscious volunteers from as far afield as Edinburgh on the beach sweep, with organisers shocked by the variety and extent of material found.

“We know marine litter is a huge problem but what has been collected in has been beyond even our expectations,” said Wendy Murray of East Haven Together.

“While we are absolutely delighted that so many people have turned out to help, the amount of stuff that has been collected is absolutely colossal and that is what is so upsetting.”

Ladyloan Primary School pupils Lexi Williams, Coraleigh Donie and Autumn Miller took part in<br />the Great Angus Beach Clean in Arbroath.

A huge tally of discarded fishing gear was picked up, including around 70 old creels.

“We’ve been measuring the ropes and there is over 100 metres, as well as 15 tyres, oil drums full of oil, bicycles and buoys,” Wendy added.

“One volunteer who came from Edinburgh had seen the sad story of the humpback whale which died after becoming entangled in fishing gear and what has been collected shows how much of a problem it is.

“It is very upsetting to see what is being washed up on our coast, but we know more than 100 members of the public have been out over the weekend and we are so grateful to them for all they have done.”

Wendy added: “We have been collecting everything with our ATV and it will be taken away in skips, but there is certainly tonnes of rubbish, and people have also been taking bags of stuff away themselves.”

Other groups also added to the clean-up effort, both on the coast and inland.

St Vigeans Conservation Network members swept the lower Brothock Burn to its harbour mouth, gathering a huge collection of rubbish including plastics and industrial waste.

In Forfar, members of the town’s Road Runners who regularly pound routes in and around the town tackled six miles of carriageway, collecting almost 40 bags of rubbish and other dumped items.