Adopt a beach.

If you wonder about the effect you are having as you remove only a few pieces of marine litter at a time from the coastline, why not adopt a beach, or even a section of a beach. It might be one you go to regularly anyway. I regularly visit a beach which has no litter bins at all, so unless folk are going there with the purpose of picking it up and taking a bag or container, its unlikely that they will pick it up on impulse. The winter storms continue, but I can see the difference my efforts in one area have made in January alone.

 

Its hard to prioritise and measure the amount of marine litter you pick up. Measuring by weight or volume doesn't account for all the smaller and potentially more deadly pieces that weigh very little.
I prioritise picking up things that are likely to blow off the land or back out to sea - plastic bags and balloons, plastic bottles, as well as shiny scraps of wrappers. Anything that could pose a risk of entaglement like net and ropes, or anything with a closed loop or ring.

Some marine litter is just too remote to carry out like this collection on the shore near Billia Croo.