Bags, bottles, balloons and even a duvet!

Sea Champion Karli Drinkwater tells us about her beach cleaning experience:

"One of the best things about being a Sea Champion is taking part in MCS beach clean-ups. It's an occasion where people from all over the country band together to turn the tide on trash. And, boy, does it feel good to look out at a litter-free horizon while breathing in that sea air.

Rubbish presents a huge threat to our beaches, and in turn to both our wellbeing and our marine wildlife. You don't need to read facts and figures to know how much of a problem it is: a trip to your local beach lets you see the impact of human carelessness.

It's annoying, it's sad and it's ugly. But when you group together and see the difference you can make in just a couple of hours, you know it's possible to turn things around and ensure a future for our beaches and seas.

As part of the latest MCS Big Beach Clean-up, I headed to my local beach at Cleethorpes on a blustery Sunday morning. Around 70 people, including kids excited to get stuck in, gathered to pick litter and record the items that are ending up at the coast.

We found the usual culprits - plastic bottles, plastic bags, cotton bud sticks and balloons. And we found some unusual ones, like a duvet! In just one morning, we collected nearly 500kg of trash. Add this up to all the beach cleans around the country and we're talking about thousands of tonnes of trash cleaned up. What a result.

If you think you can't make much of a difference as an individual, this is proof that you can. If we all do just a little bit, we could enjoy trips to the seaside without stepping over crisp packets and plastic bottles and our wildlife would have the chance to thrive without choking on waste.

And it's FUN – you meet some lovely folk, have a giggle and enjoy a good cuppa char afterwards.
Nothing like a brew well-earned."

Sea Champion Karli with a haul of almost 500kg of litter from Cleethorpes Big Beach Clean-up