'Shotgun cartridges from Nova Scotia, bleach bottle from Taiwan': What washes up on our beaches and the volunteers who clear it

World Oceans Day will run in conjunction with the UN Ocean Conference which will be held in France from June 9 to 13

Pupils from St Colman’s College, Midleton, Killeagh National School, Inch National School, Dungourney National School and Castletownroche National School at the Blue Flag Marine Education Day on Garryvoe beach last May. The event, organised by Clean Coasts Ballynamona and supported by Health Services Staffs’ Credit Union, educated children about the importance of water quality, understanding coastal biodiversity, the impact of sewage-related litter on the environment, and living sustainably to reduce carbon footprints. Picture: Cathal Noonan

On June 8, coastal communities across the globe are observing World Oceans Day organised by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS). The annual event has been running since 2009 and serves as a reminder of the critical importance of protecting our oceans and marine life.

This year, for the first time World Oceans Day will run in conjunction with the UN Ocean Conference which will be held in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13. It is hoped that holding the two events consecutively will help to amplify the visibility of the many initiatives and local programmes being undertaken to improve the health of our oceans around the world.

The theme of World Oceans Day this year is 'Wonder: Sustaining what sustains us.' 

According to DOALOS the marine environment faces increasingly daunting challenges and the act of wondering “serves to remind us that we are part of something bigger”. With World Oceans Day, the aim is to “celebrate the ocean’s essential wonder and call on decision makers not to lose sight of the ocean’s wonder when determining its fate”.

Clean Coasts 

Established by An Taisce in 2003 the Clean Coasts programme is one of Ireland’s most visible community initiatives aimed at improving the marine environment. The Clean Coasts programme works with communities to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life.

Currently there are 2,500 active groups around Ireland with 45,000 volunteers taking part.

The aim of the Clean Coasts programme is to encourage tangible improvements to Ireland’s coastal environment through community-led actions such as beach clean-ups, litter surveys and a wide range of other environmentally focused activities.

Since 2003 the programme has continually grown and now includes variety of initiatives including the Green Coast Award, Love Your Coast photography competition, the Clean Coasts Roadshow, Clean Coasts grants scheme, corporate volunteering, the Ocean Hero Award, the Big Beach Clean and awareness campaigns such as “think before you flush” and the #2MinuteBeachClean. 

Last year, the Big Beach Clean held on the third weekend of September saw 15,000 volunteers remove 95 tonnes of litter from Irish coastal areas in one weekend.

The volunteers: Mark McCarthy

The son of a West Cork lighthouse keeper, the sea is in Mark McCarthy’s blood. For his day job Mark runs marine training courses from his base in Schull where he is also a senior member of the local coastguard unit. Mark has been a long-time supporter of the Clean Coasts programme and was the recipient of the Ocean Hero Award in 2024 for his efforts in integrating environmental awareness into his training courses.

He has been actively cleaning marine waste from local beaches and coastal areas for many years and has tried to use social media to encourage others to do likewise.

“It goes back a long time now to the pre social media days,” he says adding: “I have found that social media is a very powerful space to be able to share, it gives people a bit of an awareness for the world around us and I also integrate beach cleaning now into my courses as well.” 

Awareness in West Cork has grown over recent years as the more popular beaches have improved significantly but remoter areas can still suffer from significant amounts of rubbish, according to Mark.

He said: “The more remote islands here in West Cork tend not to have a lot of people on them, so they tend to have a lot of stuff that people haven't picked up. I find that the beaches that are popular are usually the cleanest because a lot of people have the same mindset.

“They'll take a bit of the plastic away with them, they're getting better all the time. Unfortunately, it’s the places that are inaccessible that need the most work and most tidying up.” 

Mark McCarthy has been a long-time supporter of the Clean Coasts programme and was the recipient of the Ocean Hero Award in 2024 for his efforts in integrating environmental awareness into his training courses. Picture: Mark McCarthy

Mark has been actively involved in beach cleaning for at least 20 years and over that time not much has changed in terms of the amount of marine plastic he sees washed up on the West Cork coast.

“There is a lot of polypropylene that floats. That's the plastic we can see but there's plenty of other plastic that doesn't float and there's no chance we'll ever get get our hands on that.” 

Being on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, Mark says he finds items that wash up from all over the world: “The other day I picked up a bottle of bleach from Taiwan. I have lobster tags that come from Maine on the east coast of the US. I’ve found shotgun cartridges that come all the way from Nova Scotia. 

"It’s amazing that these small pieces of plastic travel halfway around the world and make their way to our coastline.” 

According to Mark, the evidence of the impact of marine waste on animal life is impossible to ignore: “We see evidence all the time of how it affects animals and biodiversity. I find pieces of polystyrene and insulation foam; you find little blocks of it on the shoreline and you can tell that it's been nibbled away by fish, they are eating it.” 

Mark says that despite the seemingly never-ending tide of marine plastic he remains hopeful about the future.

“I’ll always remain optimistic, there's no point in any other attitude really. I'm known in the area as the guy with the blue bags, so people just knock on the door and say, ‘hey got any more of those bags?’ 

Mark says he finds items that wash up from all over the world: 'The other day I picked up a bottle of bleach from Taiwan.' Picture: Mark McCarthy

“I try to encourage people to adopt their favourite beach and anytime they're down on that beach, to try and make it a little bit better, just take a little bit of stuff away.” 

Mark says that Cork County council have also been very supportive of the Clean Coasts group in Schull. 

“It’s definitely worth noting the help we have had from Cork County Council. They have been really supportive of everything I've done. I could come off a beach with 10 or 15 bags of rubbish and I just need to tell one of the local council workers and that stuff is collected straight away. I don't have to spend money or look for funding to bring it to the local recycling centre and they support me with all of the bags and stuff like that as well which is great.” 

“Every single person can make a difference. It’s through lots of people doing small bits at there local beaches that we can really see things start to change,”  Mark said.

Proinsias Ó Tuama 

Inspired by the students he teaches at St. Colmans Community College in Midleton, Clean Coasts volunteer Proinsias Ó Tuama believes that the future of our coastal environment depends on engaging young people as much as possible. Proinsias was the driving force behind the establishment of the Clean Coasts group in Ballynamona back 2015.

He said: “I was down on the beach with some students and we saw one of those children’s hobbyhorses washed up there. This one was a bit different to ones I had seen though. It was like a lightbulb moment because this one was in the shape of an elephant. It was an unusual sight and the idea really came from there.” 

He said: “That first year we started a community group with myself and a family just up the road and by the end of the year there were 20 of us and we had removed over 12 tonnes of rubbish from Ballynamona Beach. The beach is 1.2 kms long and and I started thinking if we were able to collect that much rubbish from one beach is every kilometre of the coast just as bad?” 

From there the Ballynamona group has seen the area it covers and the number of volunteers steadily increase. Today, the group has 300 local volunteers and looks after 3% of the Irish coastline as well as managing 34 acres of land for biodiversity purposes. Proinsias says that the group has evolved into a large and friendly volunteer organisation but it could not operate without sponsorship.

He said: “We engage with hundreds of school children. Marine education, coastal biodiversity, workshops, beach cleans. In this area coastal flooding is a major issue. We try to open their eyes, to get them off their phones for a while and get them out to the coast. 

"You hope that maybe you can awaken their their spirit to something else that's going on around them. We include climate change and climate adaptation workshops too.

“We are supported by the Health Services Staff's Credit Union (HSSCU) and we really couldn’t do it without them. We wouldn't be able to do it without that support because it's so costly to get kids down to the coast and there are no budgets in school for things like this.” 

Ella Rose Richards, a pupil of Ballycroneen National School in Co. Cork and her older sister Lorna Richards, a student at St Colman's College in Midelton at the Blue Flag Marine Education Day on Garryvoe beach last May. Picture: Cathal Noonan

Proinsias says that awareness of the impact of marine plastic on the wider environment and human health is crucial to empower future generations.

“We have to try to prepare them,” he says. “Ultimately it’s about how we consume things and plastic is a major part of that. It takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to break down but that's actually only to break it into microplastics, then it’s broken into nanoplastics but it’s still there. 

"Plastic has crossed the blood / brain barrier and we still don't know what the long-term effects of that are in terms of things like Alzheimer’s or dementia.”

Workshops also try to make children think about how products and produce are packaged: “If they need to buy an orange what do they buy? Do you buy them in a plastic net? Do you buy an orange that’s peeled and segmented in a plastic container ready for consumption? Do you buy an orange and peel it?”

Jack Murphy, a 6th class pupil from Cloyne National School in Co Cork at the Blue Flag Marine Education Day on Garryvoe beach last May. Picture: Cathal Noonan

According to Proinsias people do not always appreciate just how long our waste materials can remain as pollutants in the ocean.

“I have a Lux detergent bottle that I found in 2017 and the price on it is in Nouveau Francs. That was the currency in France between 1958 and 1963. Two years ago one of the kids from a local primary school found a bottle that was 120 or 130 years old, it’s phenomenal.” 

He added: “We’ve moved on from where we were say 10 years ago. We don’t have the amazing photographs of the big mountains of rubbish anymore. We are keeping on top of it but we are just a small piece of the jigsaw in Ireland. 

"We are doing okay but we need the decision makers who enact laws and provide resources to do more. Are we in a good place? Not really. Have we improved the situation? Absolutely. Were we far worse off? Yes we were but there is so much more to do.” 

Gráinne Furey 

Gráinne Furey is a community development worker with the Youghal Blue & Green Community Network in East Cork. Established in 2021 the network aims to empower local people to make positive changes in their community addressing the four key pillars of environment, biodiversity, coast & marine and energy.

Gráinne said: “It’s about community development and making sure people weren't being left behind. The basic idea is that we all go forward together in a just transition when we're looking at climate change. 

"Our remit is to bring wider awareness, to do it in a way that we're not preaching to people. We are trying to listen to our community.” 

The network helps people to educate themselves around environmental issues through various conservation projects, community workshops, talks and community events.

She added: “Because we are a coastal community, obviously the coastal environment is very important. Flooding is a serious issue and will continue to be. Coastal erosion impacts us, pollution. 

Awareness in West Cork has grown over recent years as the more popular beaches have improved significantly but remoter areas can still suffer from significant amounts of rubbish, according to Mark. Picture: Mark McCarthy

"We try to bring that awareness to people about how important what you put down your sink and your toilet at home is. What you're putting in the bin, everything that goes into into landfill can end up in the sea.

“We try to combine those issues in fun and creative ways as well. Last year we did a sand castle challenge where we had sand artists doing a map of Youghal on the beach and we chatted to people about climate change and flooding. 

"There are 477 buildings in Youghal at risk of flooding in future and most of those 200 people on the beach were not aware of that.” 

Gráinne says she was a member of the local Clean Coasts group herself before she took on the role within the network. Empowering local communities is the key to driving successful change. 

“That's why we're a network. It's about getting people to talk to each other, because quite often, the club up the road and the man down the road are coming from the same place. They want to do the same thing, but they don't know it.”