Please Keep Our Beaches Clean

The sun was blazing today, and the weather was beautiful, so I and my husband took an afternoon trip to our local beach. On a day like this, the sea sparkles and the sand is usually golden.

Unfortunately, the beautiful scenery soon turned into a scene of horror as the tourists and some of our residents dumped tonnes of litter on our beautiful beaches.

My home town is full of beauty. Lush countryside, beautiful sea, beautiful beaches, beautiful parks, nature reserves, commons and there are some stunning sights to take in.

It is a beautiful place for tourists and residents alike.

Hengistbury head is a beautiful beach. It is also a Nature Reserve. It is a wonderful place for inspecting nature, and has many beautiful walks. You can find lots of wildlife here, and when you visit the local cafe which isn't far from the beach, you're often greeted by the wonder of Starlings who come close to you, and they certainly are not afraid of humans. It is another part of Bournemouth where nature thrives well, and although there are litter bins, and people are encouraged to use them; people still take no notice.

Litter such as plastic and glass bottles, bags, nets, and certain foods can be extremely harmful to our wildlife. Some animals cannot stomach foods such as fish and chips and sugary foods. Animals can get seriously hurt and even die if they come into contact with plastic and glass, bags, nets and other forms of rubbish left on our beaches and in other places.

We have a wonderful council here in Bournemouth of whom the residents team up and spend hours cleaning up our beaches.

The point is they shouldn't have to, and they wouldn't have to if tourists and residents took some responsibility to clean up their own mess. There are plenty of bins around to use, and yes, sometimes they do get full. However, there is no excuse. If the bins are full, find another, if you can't find one, take it home and put it in your bin. There was a time when we didn't have a car; we simply bagged up our rubbish and took it home to safely dispose of.

We all love a great fun holiday, and we all love a trip to the seaside.

Everybody I know enjoys and values the delights that the beach and sea can offer, so why is it too hard for people to keep them clean?

There were tonnes of people at the beach on our day out, having fun. However, they were ignorant of the rubbish scattered around them, and these people were just dumping the rubbish on the beach.

There were seagulls on the beach who could have also got hurt by much of this rubbish which included plastics and glass.

As a person who has lived by the beautiful coastline of Bournemouth and Dorset U.K. for just over 19 years and has seen the wonders of this beautiful haven, it really angers me to see that people enjoy visiting the beauty this coastline has to offer but not enough to value it by keeping it clean.

We read a lot and see a lot of news about climate change and pollution. Many of us are pleading with the government to take action.

However, what right do we have to tell the government how important action on climate change and pollution are if we are just going to continue polluting our oceans, beaches and all the other important places in our lives with our own junk?

The point is

Humans are ignorant.

We are good at making arguments for ourselves, but we are no good at actioning or backing up our own mouths with the right action.

Next time you are at a beach, or simply out and about. Please take the time to consider your environment, other people and the nature that lives there.