BIG
HARBOUR
CLEAN-UP
Poole Harbour, Dorset
Saturday 18th – Sunday 19th May 2019
Make a difference to your environment &
Join in the Big Harbour Clean-up
On Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th May the team at Go Pladdle are organising The Big Harbour Clean Up to get everyone out cleaning up Poole Harbour and surrounding areas of Poole.
The idea is to divide the borough into zones, and invite groups and individuals to join up and pick a zone to clean within. Groups will be able to register online and choose an area they want to focus their cleaning on. Individuals will be able to see groups who have already registered within their chosen area and will have the option to contact and join them, or create their own group.
Over the weekend, the groups will cover their area of the harbour, gathering rubbish and depositing it at a central pick-up point for later collection. Dive teams will also be out cleaning the bottom of the harbour and those with watercraft will be encouraged to focus on the harder to reach areas of the coastline.
On land, groups will be covered by Surfers Against Sewage public liability insurance; those on or under the water will need to use their own individual or group’s insurance.
What happens to all the rubbish?
Before being responsibly recycled, the plan is that the rubbish will be incorporated in an art installation created by a local school to highlight the problem of littering and plastic pollution in Poole.
After the clean, groups will need to contact us, and we will arrange for collection of the rubbish. We would like to encourage people to share their photos and reflections of the event with us so we can celebrate their achievement and raise further awareness of plastic pollution.
Drastic Plastic
The public’s awareness of plastic pollution has been massively heightened over the last few years. Thanks in part to David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series on BBC but mainly due to years of campaigning work by groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Ocean Conservancy, the depth of pollution in our seas is now, quite rightly, high on the agenda.
Appalling images of snared and suffocated aquatic animals and drowned sea birds have distressed us all. We now have indisputable scientific evidence that plastics have entered the food chain, creating alarming long term health problems for all life, including humans.
Many of us have wondered what we can do to halt the noticeable increase in plastic pollution in our oceans and almost as many have questioned whether anything would make a difference. As an individual any efforts you make to cut down on single-use plastics, avoid plastic packaging and recycle wherever possible may seem like a drop in the ocean (if you excuse the pun). But together we can make a difference, not just in reducing the amount of waste we generate but also in cleaning up the plastics already in our oceans.
Plastic Free Poole
Many local businesses, schools and organisations in the Poole area are looking at the single-use plastics they use and taking steps to reduce them. This could be something simple like switching to wooden cutlery, eliminating sauce sachets or changing their packaging materials. Every tiny change still makes a difference.
One straw might not make a huge impact, but 500,000 (around the population of Poole) most definitely would. We are inviting everyone to join the plastic free movement and remove or find an alternative for three items of plastic used in their premises. Businesses can contact us for further details and a plastic free business toolkit.
Latest News & Updates
Big Harbour Clean-Up Website is Live!
We’re pleased as punch to announce that the Big Harbour Clean-up website is now live. There’s lots of information online about the event which takes place on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th May. There’s also a sign up form on the Get Involved page for participants (rubbish collectors, organisers and supporters) to get in touch and send in their details.
Plastic Free Poole Boat Show
We have very kindly been invited by the Poole Harbour Commissioner to work with them to make Poole Harbour Boat Show a plastic-free boat show. We are thrilled to have been given such an incredible opportunity to really get the message out there in such a big way. Our plans are still in the very early stages but this is going to be a big one!
Lytchett Bay Update
A regular round-up of progress being made at Lytchett Bay, one of our favourite parts of Poole Harbour. We’re working with the local community, fishermen and borough council representatives to clean the place up and reclaim it for residents to enjoy again.
Refill Dorset
Litter Free Coast and Sea’s ‘Refill Dorset’ scheme offers the public free tap water refills at designated points. Refill is a practical tap water campaign that aims to make refilling your bottle as easy, convenient and cheap as possible by introducing refill points on every street.
