East Grampian Coastal Partnership Ltd. Turning the Plastic Tide Project Report: August 2018 to September 2020 January 2021 At 9.00 am on Thursday 25th April 2019, heaps of waste lie tangled in seaweed and submerged in the sand at Cairnbulg beach. At 4.00 pm on Thursday 25th April 2019, Cairnbulg beach looking spotless after 4.14 tonnes of marine litter was removed from the one kilometre stretch of coast by volunteers from Premier Oil during a staff beach clean. Photography by Crawford Paris (© EGCP), unless otherwise stated. 1 Executive Summary Turning the Plastic Tide was established in August 2018 as a two-year NESFLAG-funded project for East Grampian Coastal Partnership. During this time, the project has excelled in delivering benefits to coastal communities between Fraserburgh and East Haven, in Angus, primarily through the delivery of beach clean support and education to primary and secondary schools. The following statistics provide a summary of the project’s key achievements between August 2018 and September 2020: • Beach Clean/Litter Pick Events = 67 (Initial target = 40) • Beach Clean Volunteers Engaged = 2,500 (Initial target = 800) • Volunteer Hours (Beach Cleaning) = 6,000 • Community Beach Clean Kit Stations = 4 • Marine Litter Removed = 25.36 tonnes • Schools Engaged = 29 (Initial target = 20) • School Pupils Engaged (Marine Litter Education) = 2,200 (Initial target = 800) • School Beach Cleans = 15 • School Pupils Engaged (Beach Cleaning) = 800 • Social Media Followers = 1,800 During the project, litter picks and beach cleans organised for schools has accounted for the removal of approximately 800 kilogrammes of waste from the environment, over 300 of which has been uplifted by pupils from Ladyloan Primary in Arbroath. The pupils have launched all three of the Great Angus Beach Clean weekends held to date by removing litter from their local patch of coastline. Their determinaion and dedication has deservedly earned them the worthy status of Marine Litter and Habitat Champions for Angus. 2 Acknowledgements With the primary core funding now coming to an end, Turning the Plastic Tide has been successful in gaining new funds to sustain project activities and continue delivering benefits to coastal communities. The project would like to thank NESFLAG, the European Union’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the Scottish Government for the opportunity to deliver these activities across the North East of Scotland. In addition, the following organisations have also been essential in supporting the growth and success initiative since its launch in 2018: Peterhead Port Authority, Vattenfall, Scottish Fisherman’s Trust, Aberdeen Fish Producer’s Organisation, Angus Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Fraserburgh Harbour, Montrose Port Authority, Oil and Gas UK, Premier Oil, BP, and Shell. Turning the Plastic Tide would also like to thank the Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage North East Scotland, Marine Scotland, SCRAPbook, Aberdeenshire Council Ranger Service, Aberdeenshire Council Landscape Services, Aberdeenshire Council Community Waste Officers, staff at Forvie and St Cyrus National Nature Reserves, KIMO UK, Pick Up Peterhead, East Haven Together, Littoral Art Project, AbSafe, PolFit, Pony Axes, Stonehaven Sea Safari, Keep Scotland Beautiful, the RNLI, Wood Recyclability, Fraserburgh and District Community Safety Group, Fraserburgh Beach Café, The Sand Bothy, Molly’s Café, and the community councils for their invaluable collaboration and help with raising awareness of marine litter issues. Finally, the utmost gratitude to all the school pupils, teachers, parents, and volunteers who have given their time to celebrate and improve our wonderful coastline and sea. A dedicated team of 92 pupils, teachers and parents from New Machar School collect litter from the sands at Balmedie Beach on 21st June 2019. 3 Introduction Turning the Plastic Tide is a two-year NESFLAG-funded environmental initiative for East Grampian Coastal Partnership Ltd. (EGCP) which delivers marine litter education and supports volunteer beach cleaning in the North East of Scotland from Kinnaird Head, in Fraserburgh, to East Haven, in Angus. With a goal to engage and educate the public in marine litter issues, Turning the Plastic Tide has considerably over-delivered on its targets, reaching three times as many individuals as initially anticipated and delivering almost twice as many beach cleans. The aims and objectives were largely met during 2019, a time when the project significantly gained momentum after having completed a series of presentations to community councils across Angus and Aberdeenshire towards the end of 2018, and advertising education workshops to schools in early 2019. This initial outreach contributed greatly to both a busy spell of school visits during Spring and a busy year-round programme of clean-ups organised in partnership with community interest groups, charities, businesses, and schools. As a result, by December 2019 the project had successfully delivered 61 beach cleans and 21 school visits. Due to rapidly changing circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 Turning the Plastic Tide adapted its approach to engaging the public in marine litter issues, creating online education resources for primary schools and pupils working from home. This also included running a 3-month social media competition in which parents submitted their children’s marine-themed artwork, poems, and stories to help raise awareness about protecting our coast and seas. In addition to school education, COVID- secure beach cleaning was also promoted through the regularly updated COVID-19 Safe Beach Clean Guide, and subsequently with the network of ‘Take 4 for the Shore’ community equipment boxes, which were installed across parts of Aberdeenshire and Angus. The following report outlines these activities and achievements, including the project launch in August 2018, notable achievements during the delivery of marine litter education and voluntary beach cleaning in 2019, and projects which illustrate how the project adapted to support to coastal communities during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Project Launch at Sandford Bay To launch the project and demonstrate the type of support Turning the Plastic Tide aimed to provide over the next two years, one of the East Grampian coast’s worst-affected beaches, Sandford Bay, was selected for the location of the clean-up. Local beach litter awareness group, Pick Up Peterhead, had last cleaned the beach in June 2018 but had struggled to clear the heavier items due to difficulty accessing the correct mechanical equipment. This presented an opportunity for Turning the Plastic Tide to offer assistance. During September 2018, Peterhead Port Authority kindly advertised the launch and distributed posters around their facility. A press release was also sent out to the local papers, receiving a positive response, and was picked up by Scottish Field Magazine, the Buchan Observer, Fishing News, and the Press and Journal. BBC Radio Scotland also extended an invitation to speak about the project and the launch event on the ‘Out of Doors’ programme, which was broadcasted on Saturday 15th September. 4 On 22nd September, 45 participants arrived prepared to clean Sandford Bay, including the local Sea Cadets, a team from the Community Payback Service, staff from Peterhead Port Authority, a volunteer from the University of Aberdeen and members of Peterhead community, as well as several EGCP board members. All volunteers were provided with safety equipment acquired through project funding, including gloves, litter pickers, bin bags and bin bag hoops. To assist with the heavy lifting, Aberdeenshire Council’s Landscape Services department kindly provided a tractor, quad bike and two trailers, accompanied by three staff members. A large skip was also arranged through the council which was located on the premises of a nearby private property. Nets and rope being hauled from Sandford Bay by Aberdeenshire Council’s Landscape Services team during the project launch on 22nd September 2018. Over the course of the afternoon the volunteers, along with the essential assistance of the Landscape Services team, went on to remove 2.4 tonnes of marine litter from the beach in as little as three hours. Most notably, large sections of tangled rope and netting submerged in the sand that once were a permanent feature of the beach, made up the majority of the collected weight. Also frequently found were small pieces of plastic, with an estimate of around 1000 pieces per square metre in some areas. Although highlighting the severity of the impacts of marine litter on the coast, the launch at Sandford Bay demonstrated how positive engagement with the local community combined with utilising available resources from Aberdeenshire Council can really make a difference. The success of the launch ultimately formed a template for how the project would plan and coordinate beach clean events moving forward. 5 Marine Litter Education Programme The delivery of a Marine Litter Education forms one of the core activities of the initiative. A workshop approach was chosen for delivering a programme across schools, the content of which covers single-use plastics, litter from source-to-sea, impacts on Scottish wildlife and on local beaches, as well as certain actions that can be taken to reduce these impacts. The structure of the session consists of a 30-minute interactive presentation followed by a quiz, as well as a group