Beach clean volunteers collect 65 bags of rubbish on Hayling Island shoreline

People ventured out on Hayling Island over the Easter weekend to clean-up a section of The Hayling Billy Trail.

The clean-up was action group Final Straw Solent’s second event, supported by Havant Borough Council and Portsmouth City Council.

By the power of social media alone, 83 volunteers were gathered on Saturday to collect 65 bags of rubbish, which was recorded by The Solent Oyster Project.

The group collected plastic water bottles, dozens of straws and cotton bud sticks, carpet, tyres and a deflated rubber dingy.

Final Straw Solent founder Bianca Carr said: ‘The turn-out was incredible.

‘We are so grateful to all the fantastic volunteers who came to help.

‘Our seas and coastlines are in the middle of a plastic crisis.

‘We all need to start reducing the amount of single-use plastic that we buy and taking responsibility for cleaning-up after ourselves.’