Cork swimmers urged to take two minutes to do a beach clean-up during Christmas swims 

WHILE many brave souls will be considering a dip in the icy sea on Christmas Day at some of Cork’s fabulous beaches, an appeal has been issued by Clean Coasts to those taking a festive seashore walk to spend just two minutes cleaning up on their way.

The environmental charity has issued its appeal as it fears recent winter storms will have increased the likelihood of litter ending up on the beach, especially those that are located close to large ports or river mouths.

Áine Lawless of Clean Coasts told The Echo that if all those out for a festive dip or a walk over the Christmas period took two minutes out of their time to do a clean-up, it would make a massive difference.

“We’ve been really seeing recently that the winter storms have been turning up a huge amount of litter on the beaches,” she said.

“A lot of people have been forgetting about the beaches during the winter months so we’re encouraging anyone who’s out there to take two minutes of their day to do a bit of a clean-up and either bring the litter home with them or put it in the bins at the beach,” Ms Lawless said.

“It does make a huge difference if everyone who’s out there on Christmas Day going for their dips or that, can do that, it would make a huge difference.”

For over 20 years, Clean Coasts has been working with communities and volunteers to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean, and marine life, by organising hundreds of beach clean-ups each year, mobilising thousands of volunteers, and removing massive quantities of marine litter from our coastline. 

Currently, the charity can count on the work of over 2,000 groups and 40,000 volunteers.

See https://cleancoasts.org/our-initiatives/2minutebeachclean/.