How this five-year-old girl is taking the fight to plastic waste this summer

The five-year-old, from Lovedean, has organised a beach clean in Southsea next week with friends from school '“ inspired by a programme she saw on telly about plastic waste in our oceans.

Now, she will be taking 12 of her friends, plus family members, to Southsea beach on Wednesday morning to do their bit for the environment.

Proud mum Charlotte Williams says that it all came from Ava's inquisitive nature.

She said: '˜Ava is at an age where she has lots of questions and wants to find out about everything '“ even if I don't have all the answers myself!

'˜We were watching something on TV about plastic waste, its impact on our oceans and the importance of looking after our environment.

At the time we were talking about what we were going to do during the summer holidays; Ava and I were chatting about people leaving rubbish on the beach and she told me she wanted to go down and pick up people's rubbish.'

From there, Charlotte decided to give her daughter a helping hand in setting everything up '“ arranging with other parents from her year group at Denmead Infant School.

She said: '˜We have a Facebook group with other parents and I asked if anyone wanted to meet up and get involved.

'˜The response was amazing '“ we have a great group coming down on Wednesday and Ava seems really happy that its grown so much, so quickly.'

Ava and her friends will be meeting at Southsea Beach Cafe on the day, before they start their work across the seafront.