TTPT Project Review - Update Dec 18

EGCP - Turning the Plastic Tide: A coastal litter initiative for the East Grampian Coastal Partnership Review of Project Activities: December 2017 – December 2018

Executive Summary The following review provides an outline of the activities of ‘EGCP – Turning the Plastic Tide’, a beach litter initiative for the East Grampian Coastal Partnership. The review covers the period from December 2017 when the proposal for the project was initiated, to December 2018. During this time, the initiative has gained momentum through fundraising, the recruitment of the project officer, organising several community beach cleans, attending local events and conferences, engaging with community councils and carrying schools outreach. Much of these activities have been recognised in the media with regular releases in local papers and an interview featured on national radio. Below is a summary by numbers outlining the achievements of the initiative so far, followed by a review of the project activities. • Delivery of 4 beach cleans: Total of 221 volunteers. • Attendance at 5 beach cleans by Project Officer: Total of166 volunteers and 4 by EGCP Project Manager. • 54 beach clean volunteers signed up to the initiative. • Successful delivery of a project launch event at Sandford Bay where 2.5 tonnes of litter was removed by 44 volunteers in 3 hours. • 1 Photographic exhibition supporting the project held at the SWT Montrose Basin Wildlife centre. • 1 school engaged to date: Presented to 18 pupils (primary 4 – 7s) from Kininmonth Primary and followed up with a clean-up at Ugie Beach – 160 kilograms removed. • Approximately 180 contacts made in the field including media/press, council services, external contractors, schools, community councils, partnership/NGOs, fishing industry, oil and gas industry, interest groups (e.g. recreation clubs, local businesses, community beach clean groups etc.), funding bodies and civil service contacts. • Collaborative links made with SCRAPbook, Moray Firth Partnership, Marine Conservation Society, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Surfers Against Sewage, Scottish Natural Heritage, Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, KIMO UK/International, RNLI, and Angus Clean Environments. • Social media presence of 307 followers and steadily growing – 171 (Facebook), 104 (Twitter) and 32 (Instagram). • Press and Media Coverage: Featured on BBC Radio Scotland “Out of Doors” programme; 3 press releases/ 2 phone interviews including coverage in Scottish Field, Press and Journal, Buchan Observer, Fishing News, The Shire Magazine, Mearns Leader, The Scots Magazine and Scottish Natural Heritage news feed.

1. Project Background and element and EGCP’s work in supporting the Timeline project. 1.1 On the 5th of December 2017 EGCP April 2018 – Recruitment process for a Held a Marine Litter Workshop at the dedicated Project Officer started. Aberdeen Harbour Vessel Control Tower, supported by Vattenfall. This event was 12th May 2018 – EGCP Project Manager attended by 23 delegates and included a organises beach clean as part of the selection of presentations and workshops. Vattenfall Windfarm Open Day at Balmedie. 1.2 At the end of the meeting it was June 2018 – Interviews held with Crawford agreed that EGCP should initiate a 2-year Paris being appointed Project Officer. marine litter project that would, employ a dedicated Project Officer to increase The new Project Officer, Crawford Paris, inspects awareness of marine litter and increase the beach litter at Sandford Bay ahead of the project number of community beach cleans in the launch event. area. The following outlines the key steps 30th June 2018 – EGCP Project Manager taken to set up the project. attends Pick Up Peterhead’s Sandford Bay beach clean to gather support of the marine 5th January 2018 – Bid to EMFF submitted. March 2018 – EMFF Funding agreed for 90% of the project costs. The remaining funding agreed from Peterhead Port Authority, Vattenfall, Shell UK, Angus Council, Scottish Fisherman’s Trust and Aberdeen Fish Producers Organisation. This funding covered the 10% match funding

litter project and assess possibility of 2. Beach Cleans Sandford Bay being used as a launch event in September. 2.1 22nd September 2018 – Turning the Plastic Tide Project Launch 6th August 2018 – Project Officer starts work. This was followed by a comprehensive To launch the project and demonstrate the introduction to the coast and its beaches type of support Turning the Plastic Tide aims with the EGCP Project Manager. to provide over the next two years, one of the East Grampian coast’s worst-affected 8th August 2018 – Following an online beaches was selected for the location of the survey, the litter project was launched on clean-up. Sandford Bay is a well-known litter social media under the banner ‘EGCP – sink and receives heavy items, including Turning the Plastic Tide’ large sections of tangled netting, that have proved difficult to remove manually in the September 2018 – Project Manager and past. Local beach litter awareness group, Project Officer attend Angus Coastal Festival Pick Up Peterhead, had last cleaned the and aid beach clean events. beach in June 2018 but had struggled to clear the heavier items due to difficulty In addition, EGCP holds an exhibition at accessing equipment. This presented a clear Montrose Basin Visitor Centre entitled ‘The opportunity for Turning the Plastic Tide to Good the Bad and the Ugly of our Coast’. offer assistance. This aimed to increase awareness of the litter project by showing the very best of our stunning coastline whilst highlighting issues and encouraging volunteering. The exhibition ran until late November and was supported by a photography workshop as a launch event. Turning the Plastic Tide were able to access the resources of Aberdeenshire Council’s Landscape Services team to aid the beach clean. Photographs by Ian Hay illustrated the issue of Leading up to the event, Peterhead Port beach litter on the East Grampian coast. Authority kindly advertised the launch and distributed posters around their facility. A press release was also sent out to the local

papers, receiving a positive response, and was located on the premises of a nearby was picked up by Sottish Field, the Buchan private property. Observer, Fishing News, and the Press and Journal. Soon after, BBC Radio Scotland Over the course of the afternoon the extended an invitation to speak about the volunteers, along with the essential project and the launch event on the “Out of assistance of the Landscape team, went on Doors” programme, which went out on to remove 2.5 tonnes of marine litter from Saturday 15th September 2018. News of the the beach in as little as three hours. Most event was also published through the frequently found were small pieces of plastic, project’s social media channels. with an estimate of around 1000 pieces per square metre in some areas. Large sections of tangled rope and netting submerged in the sand that once were a permanent feature of the beach, made up the majority of the collected weight. Additionally, numerous counts of plastic bottles, rubber gloves and fabric were also noted and removed. Many volunteers were from the local Sea Cadets. On the day of the clean-up, 44 volunteers Turning the Plastic Tide interviewed for the Press were in attendance including the local Sea and Journal following the event’s success. Cadets, a team from the Community Payback Service, staff from Peterhead Port Authority, The success of the event was subsequently a volunteer from the University of Aberdeen recognised with news articles featuring again and members of Peterhead community, as in Scottish Field, the Buchan Observer and well as several EGCP board members. All the Press and Journal, as well as the Mearns volunteers were provided with safety Leader, The Shire Magazine and the equipment acquired through project funding Peterhead Port Authority newsletter. including gloves, litter pickers, bin bags and Furthermore, social media posts on the bin bag hoops. To assist with the heavy project’s Facebook and Twitter pages lifting, Landscape Services of Aberdeenshire featuring the weight collected along with Council kindly provided a tractor, quad bike and two trailers, accompanied by three council staff from the Landscape team. A large skip was also arranged through the council which, by permission of the owner,

photographs of the clean-up had a total published in the January 2019 edition of The reached of around 11,000 people. Scots Magazine. A follow-up press release also featured in both the Buchan Observer 2.2 15th November 2018 – Ugie Beach and the Press and Journal, with additional Clean, Kininmonth Primary coverage from the project’s social media platforms which achieved a total reach of The project received interest from a local 4,000 people. The story will also be primary school who were inspired to take highlighted in the next Peterhead Port action as a result of the widespread news Authority newsletter. coverage of the beach litter mapping project, SCRAPbook, run by the Moray Firth The Kininmonth Primary pupils were treated to Partnership. After having delivered a great weather for their clean-up at Ugie Beach. classroom workshop in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and 2.3 8th December 2018 – Big Winter Beach the SCRAPbook Technical Coordinator, Clean Turning the Plastic Tide organised a clean- Holding a winter beach clean was not only up event at Ugie Beach in Peterhead for the important from the point of view of raising pupils. awareness of the project but also to maintain public consciousness of the plastic problem The school brought along 17 of the pupils over the holiday period. Stonehaven beach who were involved in the classroom was chosen in order to target a relatively workshop, as well as an additional 10 large community with close proximity and volunteers including teachers and parents. easy access to a local beach. For this event, Turning the Plastic Tide Following the lesson about the impacts of partnered with the charity Surfers Against marine plastics in the classroom, the group Sewage North East, who have strong ties to carried out an MCS Beachwatch survey the community of Stonehaven through covering a 100m stretch at the mouth of the previous beach cleans. Turning the Plastic River Ugie. During the survey the group Tide supported the clean-up through collected 305 individual items of marine litter, around two thirds of which was plastic and a quarter sourced from the public. The survey was conducted over 45 minutes and in the remaining half hour the pupils went on to collect an impressive haul of 160 kilograms. Also present at the clean-up was a freelance journalist who interviewed several of the teachers and pupils for an article that will be

advertising it on Facebook and Twitter, as 3. Community Outreach well as registering the event with Clean Up Scotland, an initiative organised by the 3.1 Schools Engagements charity Keep Scotland Beautiful. To date, Turning the Plastic Tide has Turning the Plastic Tide provided equipment conducted one engagement with a local on the day and arranged collection of the school. This session in particular was run as beach litter. Over the course of the two-hour a pilot in order to test the effectiveness of a clean-up, roughly 150 volunteers specially-tailored workshop. participated, the majority of which were families with young children from the local Prior to the beach clean organised with the community, as well as a team from the local school, Kininmonth Primary invited Turning Coastguard and community council the Plastic Tide to speak to the pupils about members. From that, 50 participating adults the impacts of marine plastics on the East signed up to the Turning the Plastic Tide Grampian coast and how to get involved to volunteer sign-up sheet, who expressed an solve the problem. interest in being contacted for future beach cleans in the area. The workshop was coordinated and delivered alongside SCRAPbook’s Technical Coordinator and the Scotland Conservation Officer from the Marine Conservation Society, who also aided the design of the session. The aim was to illustrate how marine plastic impacts life at sea, how national and local initiatives in Scotland are working together to address coastal litter and what can be done to help. Many participants spent two hours collecting Kininmonth Primary pupils showing their reports litter from the beach with their families. about the impacts of marine litter on wildlife. From the amount collected, 12 bin bags of general waste were separated from items that were deemed recyclable, which included plastic bottles and containers, aluminium cans and glass bottles. Much of the general waste consisted of small strands of rope, fishing line and small pieces of plastic from household waste.

The workshop proved to be engaging to the 4. Priority Beaches group of 18 pupils, who ranged from Primary 4 to 7. The opportunity to do a 4.1 Identification of Priority Beaches beach clean was subsequently offered to the Since the beginning of the project, much pupils which the school were more than work has been done to identify beaches that happy to be involved in. have significant accumulations of marine litter. This has been done through Based on the lessons learned from this collaborating with a coastal litter mapping session, Turning the Plastic Tide is putting project, SCRAPbook, which is a consortium together a similar session which will be of three charities that use aerial photography offered to all schools within the project area to highlight and map litter hotspots. as part of the 2019 schools engagement programme, with the hope to involve schools Aerial photographs are taken by Skywatch Civil in beach cleans after the sessions and Air Patrol and help highlight which beaches are encourage stewardship of local beaches. worst affected. 3.2 Community Councils To date, SCRAPbook have provided aerial photographs covering the area from There is a total of 21 community councils Fraserburgh to Stonehaven, highlighting 16 within the project area that border onto the locations that are categorised as having East Grampian coastline. In late November, significant accumulations. To complement an enquiry to speak at the next available this, a spreadsheet has been created which community council meeting was sent out to lists all beaches along the project area. This the secretary from each area, of which 8 have includes information about access issues, responded so far. It is the project’s intent is possible partners in the local area, when the to ask the community councils to support beaches were last cleaned and when the next beach cleans by advertising news of clean is planned. Use of the spreadsheet will upcoming events and, if possible, help determine where and when beach disseminate information about the services cleans will take place in 2019 and who will the project can provide to local groups or potentially be involved. individuals who are currently, or would like to be, involved in beach cleaning activities. Turning the Plastic Tide has already attended the meetings of Cruden Bay and Invercairn Community Councils, both of whom are happy to support the project and advertise future beach cleans in the area.

4.2 Accessing Priority Beaches 5. Networking It is estimated that there are roughly 80 beaches within the project area that could be 5.1 Angus Coastal Festival affected by marine litter. A significant proportion of these are only accessible by From the 7th to the 17th September 2018, sea, particularly in the areas immediately the Tayside Biodiversity Partnership and south of Cruden Bay, south of Collieston, and Angus Council ran the first ever Angus both North and South of Stonehaven. Coastal Festival. Turning the Plastic Tide To assist with accessing these areas, Turning attended several of the events including 4 the Plastic Tide has been in contact with the beach cleans at which a total of 136 North East of Scotland Kayakers (NESKY), volunteers attended and were notified of the Stonehaven Kayak and Canoe Club, the project. Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, Stonehaven Sea Safari, HM Coastguard and the RNLI in The beach clean event at Ferryden featured Stonehaven. the official announcement of additional funding given to SCRAPbook by local MSP Grim Haven near Muchalls has challenging access and Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural and significant accumulations of marine litter. Environment, Mairi Gougeon, on behalf of the Scottish Government. Due to the close Weather permitting, scoping work will be collaboration with SCRAPbook, Turning the carried out in early 2019 to assess which Plastic Tide featured in a government press beaches need to be addressed, after which release as part of the announcement. Turning the Plastic Tide will collaborate with the above stakeholders to get help accessing 5.2 North Sea Commission Joint Meeting the remote areas in 2019. On Tuesday 2nd October 2018, Turning the Plastic Tide was invited to talk about the beach litter initiative at the North Sea Commission Joint Meeting for the Marine Resources Group (MRG) and the Energy and Climate Change Group in Peterhead. Presenting alongside SCRAPbook, the talk outlined how national and regional marine litter initiatives can collaborate to target clean-up efforts to the worst-affected coastal areas.

50 delegates were present at the Joint Meeting talk outlined the aims and objectives of the for the North Sea Commission. initiative in supporting communities facing beach litter issues, providing education to The presentation was specifically addressed schools in the region and working with to the MRG which consisted of 20 communities and key stakeholders to reduce representatives from around the North Sea beach litter in the North East of Scotland. member states. Discussions prior to the talk focussed on the group’s approach to their 6. Supporting the Project marine litter action plan, and the presentation provided insight at a national Since the inception of the project, EGCP has and regional level about how marine litter dedicated over 40 days of Project Manager can be tackled. Time into this initiative including fund raising, recruitment, inductions and 5.3 Coastal Partnerships Network Annual supervision. This has included attending 4 Forum beach cleans, visiting 12 beaches and 16 meetings. Turning the Plastic Tide was nominated by the Scottish Coastal Forum to represent Meet the team marine litter clean-up activities in Scotland at this year’s Coastal Partnerships Annual Project Officer – Crawford Paris Forum in Cardiff, which took place at the end of November 2018. Originally from landlocked Lesmahagow in South Lanarkshire, Crawford has always The East Grampian Coastal Partnership was been drawn to the coast. one of two Scottish Local Coastal Partnerships in attendance at the meeting Crawford graduated from the University of and was the only one to feature on the Aberdeen with an MSc in Environmental agenda. The two-day forum consisted of 50 Partnership Management in 2017 after representatives from around the UK involved having gained a BSc in Marine and Coastal in coastal partnership work. A series of Resource Management, also from the project updates were presented, including University of Aberdeen, in the previous year. the activities of Turning the Plastic Tide. The He since has worked for the University of Edinburgh and the Clyde Marine Planning Partnership, before accepting the role of Coastal Litter Officer with the East Grampian Coastal Partnership.

Crawford’s role is to deliver the objectives of Heritage for kindly collaborating and helping the project including organising beach clean to raise awareness of the project. events, engaging with schools and communities to highlight the impacts of This project would also not be possible marine litter, and to encourage greater without Aberdeenshire and Angus Council’s participation in community beach cleans support of rubbish removal, and throughout the project area. Aberdeenshire Council Landscape Services for their great effort removing nets and other Project Manager – Ian Hay waste from Sandford Bay. Ian is originally from a quaint Yorkshire Lastly all the volunteers who have given their fishing village… called Hull! time and efforts to improve our coast. Ian has been the Project Manager for the With thanks, East Grampian Coastal Partnership since 2005 having previously worked as Crawford Paris, Coastal Litter Officer Aberdeen City Council’s ‘Clean and Green’ Officer, which included delivering anti-litter Ian Hay, Project Manager school talks and organising community litter picks. With thanks EGCP would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have sponsored the project especially EMFF, Peterhead Port Authority, Vattenfall, Scottish Fisherman’s Trust and Aberdeen Fish Producers Organisation. Also, Marine Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council, Angus Council and Shell UK for helping EGCP support this project. We would also like thank the Marine Conservation Society, Surfers Against Sewage, Marine Scotland, SCRAPbook, Pick Up Peterhead, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Zero Waste Scotland and Scottish Natural