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#binit4beaches to keep our bathing waters clean

This summer, organisations across the UK – charities including Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and Keep Britain Tidy, water companies, the Environment Agency, Local Authorities and beach managers – have all come come together as part of the #binit4beaches campaign, to highlight the importance of only flushing the 3P’s – pee, poo and paper – and always putting wet wipes in the bin.

August 2017

With sandy coves, sweeping bays and towering clifftops, the UK coastline is as beautiful and unique as anywhere in the world – and with nowhere more than 70 miles from the coast, it should come as no surprise that over 14 million trips are made to our beaches each year (VisitBritain, 2015).

Spending time at the coast is good for our health and wellbeing. In the UK over 600 beaches have been recognised for the importance they play in outdoor recreation and are designated as bathing waters. Each summer, the water at these beaches is sampled and tests are done, sometimes weekly, to look for signs of pollution from sewage, run-off from farmland or even for too much poo from dogs, birds or donkeys.

Any beach which fails these tests, taken over a period of four years, must display a sign at the beach entrance advising visitors not to swim. Investigations will be done to find out where the pollution is coming from and an action plan put in place to stop it reaching the beach in the future. At beaches where pollution can be temporarily increased - due to heavy rainfall - daily forecasts are provided by the Environment Agency, and the local authority or beach owner updates signs at the beach each day. All of this work is done to ensure that people heading to the beach can enjoy a dip in the sea.

Visitors are often unaware that all this work is happening in the background to look after our beaches – but it doesn’t mean that we can’t all do our part to help make sure that they stay clean. Something as simple as remembering what you can, and can’t, flush down your toilet can really make a difference.

Wet wipes are considered essential to many people; helping clean up anything from dirty nappies to grubby faces. But, if they get flushed down the toilet they can block drains and pipes, increasing the chance of sewers overflowing during heavy rainfall and flooding.

This means that some of those wipes that were flushed down the toilet can end up in our rivers and seas and on our beaches – the MCS annual beach litter survey shows that the number of wet wipes found on UK beaches has increased by almost 700% over the last decade.

“But my wet wipe says flushable on it?”

Unfortunately, not everything does what it says on the packet. Water companies have a standard for what can be flushed safely down the toilet and wet wipes labelled as 'flushable' aren't passing it, because they don't break down quick enough once they've been flushed.

Over the last 12 months MCS, water companies and other organisations have been working together to improve the labelling on wet wipes and ensure that everyone knows that all wet wipes should be disposed of in the bin. This is in conjunction with the Blueprint for PR19 campaign, which includes stopping pollution as a key ask for water companies.

#binit4beaches in your home and help reduce wet wipes reaching our rivers, seas and beaches.

Rachel Wyatt
Water Quality Programme Manager, Marine Conservation Society

Find MCS on twitter @mcsuk

The opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.