Rubbish from around the world is washing up on a beach in the Channel island of Guernsey.
Beach cleaners have found rubbish from South Korea, Argentina, Turkey, Russia, Spain and Malaysia – stark evidence that our shores are becoming a dumping ground for the world’s rubbish.
Some of the rubbish that has been found includes heaps of discarded plastic, rubber, netting, polystyrene, utensils, tubing and sacks.
Janet Unitt with the discarded plastic, rubber, netting, polystyrene, utensils, tubing and sacks she found on the beach
Other finds include a can of WD40, which had floated 5,880 miles from South Korea, and a rusty can from Argentina – 7,000 miles away from the isle.
Other finds include a bottle of Russian moisturiser, bottles from Turkey, a food wrapper from Spain and litter from China and Malaysia.
Photographer Richard Lord has been part of a beach cleaning group for 10 years and posted pictures of the washed up rubbish on social media.
Speaking to The Sun he said: ‘Beach cleaners have seen products from the US, Spain, Canada, Argentina, France, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Singapore, Nigeria, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Marine debris is a major hazard for wildlife.’
Fellow beach cleaner and Investment company worker Janet Unitt, 40, also posted pictured of items on social media.
She said: ‘I remember the first time I found an item from the Far East washed up. It was an empty bottle of orange juice. I was amazed it had come so far.
‘Then the more I started to clear rocky headlands, the more I started to regularly find items from Europe and the Far East sadly appearing.
‘Why is a tiny island in the middle of the English Channel getting Far Eastern litter? It does make me angry.’
The rubbish is traceable by serial codes and language on labels.
Julian Kirby, of Friends of the Earth, said Coastal communities across the world ‘have to deal with daily tides of plastic pollution’.
She added that governments need to introduce legislation ‘which will finally stop use of unnecessary plastic’.