Beach Cleans
Greener Orkney organises regular beach cleans at sites across the mainland. From May to August we clean other sites to avoid disturbing nesting birds.
Total amount of beach litter gathered to date
Volunteers involved
kg of rubbish removed
Why are beach cleans important?
Beach clean-ups are an extremely important event to help mitigate the problems caused by ocean debris and danger inflicted on marine life as a result of plastic pollution.
Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species.
Clean-ups also provide ample opportunity to gather important data about the state of our coasts and the types of trash that pollutes them. It would be naïve to presume that we can completely eradicate this plastic epidemic entirely. However, identifying the most harmful debris items ensures that environmental groups can find ways to stop them from entering the oceans or being littered on the beaches. Data driven strategies can then be put in place to reduce the numbers of plastics entering our waters daily.
Greener Orkney have been weighing the litter gathered during recent beach cleans. We will continue to develop our analysis of the types of litter gathered from our beach cleans, to aid our future clean up operations.
Beach Clean totals from December 2021
| Date | Location | Kg of litter collected * | Volunteers |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2023 | Warebeth Scapa Beach Fourth Barrier Warebeth Birsay | 24 9 26 20 28 | 7 5 5 2 10 |
| October 2023 | Aikerness | 12 | 2 |
| September 2023 | Bay of Skaill Dingieshowe Fourth barrier | 21 13 28 | 4 6 4 |
| August 2023 | Birsay Scapa Beach Bay of Skaill | 11 16 2 | 5 2 3 |
| July 2023 | Scapa Beach | 16 | 2 |
| May 2023 | TBC | 22 | 5 |
| April 2023 | Evie Sandwick, South Rondaldsay Warebeth Scapa Beach | 4 35 163 39 | 3 6 40 6 |
| March 2023 | Fourth barrier Dingieshowe Bay of Skaill | 45 25 86 | 7 6 8 |
| February | Scapa Beach Netherton Road End Holm Scapa Beach | 40 12 18 198 | 10 2 3 40 |
| January 2023 | Birsay Bay of Skaill Warebeth | 39 20 13 | 20 4 3 |
| December 2022 | Fourth barrier | 58 | 5 |
| November 2022 | Warebeth | 35 | 3 |
| October 2022 | Scapa Beach | 49 | 10 |
| August 2022 | Fourth barrier | 240 | 11 |
| July 2022 | Stromness | 25 | 7 |
| April 2022 | Houton Head | 309 | 11 |
| March 2022 | Warebeth | 188 | 18 |
| February 2022 | Newark Bay (Deerness) | 125 | 22 |
| January 2022 | Houton Beach | 207 | 20 |
| December 2021 | Bay of Skaill | 11 | 7 |
| Totals to date | 2,232 | 334 |
* Weight collected includes non-bagged items such as tyres, large nets etc.
Upcoming Events
Greener Orkney (SC049148) undertakes regular beach cleans.
We have litter picking equipment available for people to borrow and also are undertaking Marine Conservation Society beach litter surveys.
We would love if you could make it along. Please email us: greenerorkney@gmail.com or message us on Facebook.
We recommend you check social media close to each date just in case of last minute changes
Help make a difference
Greener Orkney also offers beach cleaning equipment to people who do their own beach cleans. If you are interested in helping or need any beach cleaning equipment do join us as a member and contact us on greenerorkney@gmail.com.
“Before” and “after” views – 42kg of mainly plastic waste removed.
