A plastic penis, a drinks can from the 1980s and a giant cuddly unicorn are among the seven tonnes of rubbish that a volunteers group have cleaned up from Ireland’s beaches this year.
The organisation Flossie and The Beach Cleaners said they collected a record 6,925kg of trash from beaches in 163 cleanups this year – averaging 42.5kg per cleanup – which they said was “either phenomenal or depressing”.
Sea bed: A volunteer with one of the bigger finds
“Beach cleaning can be so enjoyable and bring great hilarity when finding certain items,” the Dublin-based group named after teenage founder Flossie Donnelly said.
Among the items found were a bed, a child’s car seat, a drone, a Buddha statue, a table, €20, a Tayto crisp packet from 1978, a 19-year-old Walker’s crisps packet, a “bottle of wee”, a cuddly giant unicorn, a bike, a 7up can from the 1980s, a bike, leaving cert exam papers, a plastic penis, a Bank of Ireland credit card from 1982, and a pregnancy test.
As above, so below: A religious statue
The organisation said that there was a serious side despite some of the funny items they had found.
“On a serious note, between our amazing volunteers based around the country, TYs and junior school children, we collected the weight of a colony of harbour seal pups this year,” the organisation said. “In total that would be 301 seal pups.
Ready salted: A Walker’s crisps packet from nearly two decades ago
“Luckily we have an ever growing seal population but we have sadly found more dead seals and marine life washed up this year than in previous years and as far as we know they are washing up due to the increasing storms, pollution ingestion and fishing entanglement.”
The group said that one volunteer in Connemara netted 1,284kg of rubbish on their weekly beach clean in the past year – primarily fishing equipment such as nets washed in from trawlers.
Every little helps: A bag of garlic
“We are blessed to have such amazing marine life hugging the coast of Ireland, from seals to humpbacks, basking sharks, octopus, orcas, bluefin whales, dolphins and so much more, and yet the MPA (marine protected area) is minimal and as ever the Government have constantly pushed it down their ‘to do’ list,” the group said.
“We are hoping with the new incoming Government, there might be a change.
“We live on one of the most beautiful Islands in the world and, embrace it or deny it, climate change is very real so we will continue to do what we can to clean and protect the surrounding coastline and as this year proved yet again. You never know what you will find, so it’s not all doom and gloom.”
Flossie Donnelly clearing pollution at Sandycove in Dublin
Flossie and the Beach Cleaners was founded by Dublin teenager Flossie Donnelly, now 17. It carries out beach clean-ups nationwide and also delivers junior and senior school (TY) workshops on plastic pollution and climate change, along with workshops and clean-ups within the community.
Flossie Donnelly said: “Another year of beach cleaning has gone by in what feels like a blink. This year our total weight does not reflect the state of our beaches or the sea.
“Nothing brings a smile to my face like finding a weird object on the beach, whatever it may be, but behind all the weird and wonderful finds is a lot of rubbish that keeps washing in or being left behind.”
She added: “The state of our beaches and sea are a serious problem in our world which I know we can solve but it will take a lot of time and a lot of effort. I truly hope moving into 2025 we begin to take our sea and its marine life seriously as it can’t speak for itself and is in desperate need of our help.”
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