The beaches that could be overwhelmed by rubbish this summer

Seaside staycations may be less than idyllic this summer amid fears that Britain’s beaches will be blighted with litter and overflowing rubbish bins.

Some of the UK’s popular coastal towns are at risk of becoming overwhelmed by waste after tonnes of litter was discarded at seaside locations over the late May bank holiday weekend.

A pest control expert told The i Paper the combination of summer crowds and overflowing bins could see rodents find their way to Britain’s beaches.

Locals and councillors living in hotspots including Kent, Bournemouth and Brighton have expressed alarm over the amount of waste left by visitors following the heatwave.

In Margate, residents had raised concern ahead of May’s record-breaking hot weather, which saw Britons flock to the coast. “Considering that the summer season hasn’t started yet, there’s an obscene amount of rubbish everywhere,” said Beanie Holden, owner of street food hut Po’Boy, located on Margate Main Sands.

“We’re used to seeing a lot of rubbish on the seafront in the summer because there’s not enough bins to cope with it, but we’re already seeing it… It’s blowing around.”

Councillor George Kup, the leader of the Conservative group at Thanet District Council in Kent, has reported overflowing bins on the beach in his electoral division, Birchington.

He suggested the switch from weekly to fortnightly household waste collections for an additional 27,000 properties in the county could be to blame.

“The new recycling system for waste, for residents, has seen a knock-on effect to the collection of general waste in public spaces including the beaches,” he said, adding the problem could continue over summer. However, the council has refuted any link.

Residents have also complained of missed household collections. Hayley Bradley, a foster carer from Cliftonville, said her rubbish had not been collected for four weeks.

Bradley said: “The council website has given us dates but it doesn’t seem to be correlating with what’s actually happening, so our road is pretty grim.”

Karen Everest, who lives near Minnis Bay beach in Birchington, said: “I have noticed the street bins are not emptied as frequently.”

The 72-year-old litter picker said the rubbish attracts seagulls which then strew the litter around.

During exceptionally busy periods, there may be times when the bins fill faster than teams can empty them, but they catch up quickly, said councillor Steve Albon, Thanet’s cabinet member for cleansing and coastal services.

“Each year we deploy additional resources during the summer months to tackle this and this year is no exception. Our staff are out from 6am to 8pm each day and there are over 70 additional public bins deployed for the summer season in addition to permanent bins along our coastline,” he said.

A national concern

Kent is not the only seaside hotspot where there are concerns about rubbish levels – and authorities’ ability to keep up.

A total of 21 tonnes of rubbish was removed from Brighton beach over the bank holiday weekend, said councillor Tim Rowkins, deputy leader of Brighton and Hove council.

He hopes the seaside will not be overwhelmed by rubbish this summer, but suggested recent events were a wake-up call.

“Maybe, actually, what we’re seeing here is part of the need for councils and their services to start to adapt to the changing climate fact that these really, really hot summer weekends may no longer be concentrated in July… we might need to be a bit more prepared for them over a longer period of time throughout the year,” said the cabinet member for environmental services.

In Bournemouth, footage shared on social media showed litter scattered across the sand after thousands of visitors descended on the beach, despite the council stating it has positioned around 400 bins along the seafront.

Over the bank holiday weekend, waste teams collected more than 83 tonnes of waste, compared to 23 tonnes the previous weekend.

Councillor Richard Herrett, who oversees leisure operations at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, said the authority is “determined” to keep the coastline one of the UK’s best to visit, adding that those who leave their litter behind “are not welcome”. He said crews are deployed from 4am every day during the peak season to keep the seafront clean and safe.

Daniel Cowan, leader of Southend-on-Sea City Council, said it is “stepping up enforcement ahead of summer, including increased on-the-spot fines” after some visitors treated beaches “like a dumping ground” and clean-up teams had to work through the night to restore the coastline.

After “many tonnes” of rubbish was left behind on the Sefton coast, the council said a litter bin review project was already under way and that residents and visitors will see an increased capacity for waste containment in the near future.

Amelia Thorogood, of the charity CleanUpUK and founder of litter-picking group Litter Free Lowestoft, is bracing for the amount of rubbish on her local beaches in Suffolk to increase over summer.

“It would be nicer if [the bins] were maybe emptied a little bit more frequently at times,” she said.

An East Suffolk Council spokesperson said they were proud that Lowestoft beach, and those in nearby Felixstowe and Southwold, had retained their Blue Flag awards, which recognise cleanliness, but that they were “not complacent”.

Risk of rats

Potential disruption to international flights, alongside increasing airfare costs due to the jet fuel crisis, could see more holidaymakers opt for staycations this summer.

But without stricter waste management, a surge of unwelcome visitors – rodents – could also find their way to Britain’s beaches, according to pest control expert James Campbell.

“Coastal towns are particularly exposed because they combine dense populations, high numbers of food outlets and limited space for waste storage. When you add in summer crowds, overflowing bins and late-night takeaway waste, conditions can quickly shift in favour of rats and mice,” said Campbell of Kiwa Independent Pest Consultancy.

“If waste isn’t managed tightly during peak season, rodents don’t take long to follow. And once they do, it becomes much more than a seasonal issue.”

The issue of overflowing rubbish on beaches in the summer months is also a concern due to the impact on the local environment.

“Anything that’s dropped on the beach, literally the next tide or wind or even a sea bird might try and capture it straight there and it will enter the ocean,” said Catherine Gemmell, the marine litter policy and advocacy manager at the Marine Conservation Society.

“If you take anything to the beach, take it away with you… Even if the bins are being emptied every hour, it doesn’t reduce that chance that something might get accidentally dropped and blown out to sea.”