Pants, socks and shoes all collected from Southsea beach by sports retailerÂ

A team of more than 50 people from Wiggle, which has its headquarters at 1000 Lakeside, North Harbour, spent an afternoon on August 23 collecting rubbish from the beach near to South Parade Pier at Southsea.

They were inspired to litter pick after reading about the Final Straw Solent Campaign, backed by The News.

The campaign has seen more than 100 businesses commit to eradicating single-use plastics, while also organising beach cleans. 

A spokesperson for Wiggle said: '˜It went really well. We collected a large amount of micro plastics which are smaller pieces of plastics that are very harmful to wildlife as they can be confused for food.

'˜We removed 2kg of plastic waste which included whole plastic bottles, a dozen or so cans of beer and cider, two pairs of men's boxer shorts, one sock, a lego brick, a small child's toy shoe, close to a thousand cigarette butts and plenty of nails and screws.' 

Jack Humphreys, brand marketing manager at Wiggle, said: '˜All of us at Wiggle have been acute to the fantastic work Adidas have been doing with Parley to help prevent plastics entering our oceans.

'˜As well as making the Adidas Parley sportswear available to Wiggle customers, we want to make a practical difference and the beach clean at Southsea beach has been a great example of that.

'˜Wiggle staff along with the Adidas crew and top beach cleaning tips from our friends at The Final Straw Solent made for a successful afternoon of litter picking. Here's to many more.' 

Bianca Carr, co-founder of Final Straw Solent, said the help was appreciated. 

She said: '˜To have industry giants like Wiggle involved is amazing. 

'˜Southsea beach looks really clean but when look between the stones there are cigarette butts everywhere. 

'˜To have so many people paying such attention to detail was incredible. Lots of people were stopping us asking what was going on and that was exactly what we need to spread awareness.' 

A series of beach cleans will also take place at 10am on September 15, in Southsea, Eastney, Hayling Island, Gosport and Stokes Bay. 

For more search '˜Final Straw Solent' on Facebook.