Cleaning Up Our Coastline
Most of us are very proud to live near the beautiful beaches we have on the Fylde coast but every single day someone drops their litter and leaves it for someone else to pick up. Thankfully there are an amazing group of volunteer’s called the Fylde Litter Action Group (FLAG), who work without thanks to clean up after these individuals
You may be thinking that its just youngsters who are too lazy to walk to bins, or people from out of town that have had a drink and show our ‘home’ no respect. The truth of the matter is that a lot of the people who drop litter live right here amongst us.
In a one-hour litter pick FLAG, aka the ‘Tossers’ can recover well over 50 disposable napkins many buried in the sand (because people have a warped belief that it’s not littering if you bury it!).
Many dog walkers on the Fylde take bags to put their dog’s waste in, but some will bag up the waste only to throw the bag in the dunes, or once again bury it in the sand. But it’s not just dog owners, people with babies leave nappies in the dunes and it’s not just babies nappies, adult diapers have been found littered on a regular basis. Whilst this is bad enough there is plenty of dog and human faeces left un-bagged in the dunes.
Despite the nearest McDonalds being on Squires Gate or Boundary Road, there is regularly left over McDonald’s rubbish spread everywhere and plenty of fish and chip polystyrene boxes.
With great weather we get to welcome more visitors, unfortunately the minority who leave rubbish behind increases the amount of litter on our beaches. Some visitors do try to pile up the rubbish in one place but there is a growing number of people that just don’t seem to care.
It’s very simple, next time you visit our beaches please take a waste bag with you, use one of the many bins provided or take your trash home. Without the many fantastic volunteers the beaches and dunes could not have been kept clean because of the increased demand. We all have a duty of care to pick up after ourselves and keep the Fylde coast beautiful and safe for everyone to enjoy.
The Fylde Litter Action Group (FLAG) will be able to provide advice to anyone who wants to organise a clean-up and the Fylde Council Waste Prevention and Enforcement Team will assist anyone who has a concern regarding litter in the community.
Likewise join the Tossers facebook group and support their work
facebook.com/groups/DontBeATosser/
