WATCH: Clean Coasts and local volunteers helping keep Blackrock coast clean 

A GROUP of volunteers who gather regularly to clean the coastline around Blackrock castle have called for people who use the area to bring their rubbish home if no bins are available, although they would also like more bins provided to help keep rubbish down.

The members of the Blackrock community, who are supported by the Clean Coasts organisation, have been gathering litter for more than a decade, and usually meet on the second Saturday of each month fora clean up of the area around the castle.

Attendance varies but they generally have between ten and 25 volunteers, and they collect 20 to 30 bags of rubbish each time.

Tony Harrington is one of the volunteers who started the group.

“In 2010, about five or six people got together and started cleaning up here in Blackrock,” he told The Echo. “And we noticed that along the coast was the dirtiest place, a lot of plastic been washed up.

“And so a few of us just said, we would come together every month.”

Volunteer Caroline Davy has been with the group for nine years, driven by a desire to help keep her local area clean. She said that outdoor drinking is a contributor to the littering in certain spots, with cans and bottles seen on a regular basis.

Mr Harrington would like to see more bins in the area but where that is not possible, he would like people who use the area to take responsibility for the litter they create, for the sake of the environment and the food chain.

“It’s common sense that if you throw away plastic and it takes three to 500 years for some of it to break up, as it goes into microplastics is going to end up on the in the fish that we’re eating,” he said.

Mr Harrington said they have received support from local councillors and are also assisted by Clean Coasts, for help with costs for bags and pick-up equipment. 

''We have 1400 groups, not all of them are constantly active," Clean Coasts Officer for South West Region Maxim Kozachenko told The Echo.  
"Some people can go out once a year, and some can go out every two weeks." 

When it comes to keeping our environment and coasts clean, everything helps.