Southsea resturant teams up with charity to help protect ocean against plastic pollution

Becketts Southsea has joined forces with Emsworth-based environmental charity Final Straw Foundation in a new partnership.

The bar, restaurant and hotel will support the charity with its beach cleans, both financially and by sending staff down to the seafront to muck in.

The support began when Becketts sponsored the Eastney beach clean on July 3 providing PPE and cleaning equipment.

The restaurant’s duty manager, Robin Gould, who studies ocean science and marine conservation at Plymouth University, was proud of the new partnership.

He said: ‘It’s great to be managing a company that thinks and acts against plastic waste. I have worked on and off at Becketts for the last four years and work closely with general manager Terence Carvalho to establish new avenues to reduce our carbon footprint and give back to the planet.

‘With current fish stocks plummeting from unsustainable fishing methods, we are currently in discussions about donating part of the profits from our daily seafood special, which is sourced from our local fish market, to progress sea life conservation and science research projects around the world.’

One of the restaurant’s upcoming initiatives will see some profits from its seafood special meals donated to important causes.

Terence also worked to make the King’s Theatre plastic-free in 2016 when he worked there with the charity’s founder, Bianca Carr.

Terence said: ‘It’s always been important to me to go beyond the bare minimum when it comes to looking after the planet.

‘With us being based in a waterfront city and especially being a seaside restaurant, it’s important that we look after our surroundings and do what we can to help the beach and environment as a whole. It’s even better to be doing that with local people that are passionate about and make a real difference in what they do.’

Final Straw Foundation was founded in 2018 and works with businesses, schools and other organisations to help them cut back on their disposable waste, as well as running beach cleans.

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Bianca said: ‘We were over the moon when Becketts contacted us asking to be involved in a beach clean and how they can help the foundation.

‘It's fabulous to have a company that is so proactive in their support and how they can make their business more sustainable.

‘Becketts was generous to support a beach clean and provide the muscle from their staff and owners to help us clean up on Eastney Beach. Even in the rain they were there to support us.

‘With their support we managed to remove over 250lbs of litter and with their donation we were able to purchase new litter pickers for our cleans and a set of children litter pickers so it’s more accessible for them to use the equipment.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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