A DAMNING report has revealed that volunteers collected 95 bags of rubbish from Derry’s Balls Point beach last year.
The grim report by Keeping Northern Ireland Beautiful charity said volunteers spent 150 hours cleaning up the beach in 2014.
In total they lifted 57 kilos of litter that had been dumped on the beach on the shores of the River Foyle.
The report revealed that across the North, more than 5,000 pieces of rubbish can be found on every kilometre beach.
The three-year environmental assessment has branded large swathes of the region’s coastline a litter black spot, with recyclable plastic the biggest offender.
The Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful charity said the latest surveys of 14 beaches painted the worst picture yet, with an average of 1,500 bits of plastic, 425 plastic drinks bottles and 180 cotton buds on every kilometre of sand and shore.
At least 80% of the litter was made of plastic and potentially could have been recycled, it said.
Chris Allen, who managed the survey for Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said the results showed the valuable economic and environmental resources of Northern Ireland’s beaches are being trashed.
“Winter storms dumped tonnes of litter on to some beaches overnight, suggesting there is a huge reservoir of litter already in the sea, and we are just adding to it.
“We must come to terms with the damage we are doing to our own health and prosperity by dropping litter.”
Sanitary waste, mainly what spilled out from sewage and including anything from cotton buds to remnants of nappies, made up 4% of all items surveyed while metal, mostly from drinks cans, made up 6%.
The figures were collected at stretches of shore and beach not known for their amenities or given blue flag status.
Other beaches inspected included Runkerry, White Park Bay and Rathlin Island, Drains Bay and Hazelbank in Antrim
Other included were Ballywalter, Portavogie, Cloughey, Ballyhornan, Ardglass, Tyrella, Kilkeel and Rostrevor around the Down coast.
They were examined as part of a European requirement to monitor the amount and impact of litter in the sea, where it kills wildlife and damages boats.
The amount of plastic on local beaches was on a par with what is being recorded across Europe.
