It was a very rainy April morning but a lucky group of 13 of us made our way to the beach. AES have signed up to ‘Adopt a Spot’ under the scheme run by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. The scheme formally enables groups across Northern Ireland to adopt an area and look after it. We will then hold four clean ups a year at this spot; we had already done two! This allows us to dedicate a small amount of time through the year to cleaning the shoreline here but still make a huge difference to the site.

With the combined might of AES Staff, Ulster Wildlife’s Living Seas Team, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and local volunteers, we were hoping to add to our total of 116 bags already cleared from this shore.

We were on the beach for about two hours and everyone braved the rain for a good cause. We moved all the bags to the gate to be collected collected by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. The tally was another 52 bags of rubbish. We had the luxury this time of being able to separate out plastic bottles for recycling as the beach was in a better state. We ended up with 12 whole bags to be recycled. So 64 bags in total along with a tyre, scrap metal, random junk... and even a message in a bottle!

Remember that plastic persists for centuries and much of it will end up on our beaches and in our oceans. Try and reduce the amount of plastic you use and recycle whenever possible. We have now cleared 180 bags of rubbish from the beach at Kilroot! How many more before this shore is finally clear of plastics?

Thanks to Dave, Tori, Adam, James, Orlagh, Rachael, Alex, Bob, Noel, Rebecca, Alan and Rosie for coming out to help.

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