Beach data to policy change

Thanks to thousands of you taking part in beach cleans and submitting litter surveys, we have one of the oldest and most detailed beach litter datasets in the UK. Our Beachwatch data has been influential in securing policy and legislative changes to reduce the litter polluting our beaches, such as the introduction of carrier bag charges and bans on single use plastic items.

We break down exactly how your litter survey data makes it from the beach to the benches of parliament.

Beachwatch data is one of the most powerful tools our Policy and Advocacy teams can use to get action to prevent marine litter. Once you submit your litter survey results onto the Beachwatch website, the team validate and analyse it. It’s added to our 30-year litter data set which is available to all Marine Conservation Society staff to use in their work, from fundraising and community engagement to communication and policy.

Policy work involves getting a new law or regulation put in place, or a current rule changed. Our team works hard to get new policies implemented that will prevent litter ending up in our seas and on beaches, and your Beachwatch data plays a vital role in helping them to do this.

We first use Beachwatch data to highlight the problem to those with the power to make change - this could be the government (if it’s a new law), or a business (if it’s to change how industry works).

When trying to influence the government, we’ll write a briefing using Beachwatch data alongside further research done by our Policy and Advocacy teams. These briefings are usually one or two pages and set out clearly the change in policy we want to see, the Beachwatch data demonstrating the problem and the need for change, and specific asks on what we want the government to do about it.

If the government decides to take action to address the problem we’ve highlighted, it will then propose the policy change and go through rounds of public consultations. These usually include a written survey which we respond to, again using Beachwatch data as evidence of the problem. It can also involve our team going into parliament to give oral evidence to a committee of parliamentarians to persuade them to act.

Our work, and use of Beachwatch data, doesn’t stop there: once the new policy is in place, whether it's a new charge, ban or other measure to reduce litter, we then need to track the impact of the policy change. This allows us to show when these types of measures work for certain items or materials so we can then use that as even more evidence for what else needs to be tackled next. To do this, we continue to analyse the data from your litter surveys to see how levels of that type of litter have changed since the policy was introduced,

To find out what further change is needed to reduce the pollution in our blue spaces, we look at what other types of litter volunteers are finding and recording on beach cleans. Then the whole process begins again!

The data from your litter surveys helps ensure we’re campaigning and communicating calls for change in the most impactful way. By looking at trends in Beachwatch data, we can see where there might be a need for a new campaign to call for action. For example, the rising numbers of bottles and cans recorded on beaches each year led us to campaigning for Deposit Return Schemes, while the steep rise in face masks and other PPE during the pandemic led to to our calls for correct disposal of single-use masks and the need to support reusable options when appropriate.

Beachwatch data plays a key role in our communications such as  press releases and webpages, acting as evidence of an issue and motivating the public and our partners to take action.

The impact of your litter survey findings doesn’t end there – it's been used in government reports and studies, academic research, and grass roots campaigns, too.

We’ve set up data sharing agreements to help expand the reach and influence of Beachwatch data outside our organisation, sharing it freely with academia, local councils, regulators, businesses, water companies, other charities, and grass roots campaigners. This helps support the policy work we do by showing how influential your Beachwatch data is and providing more evidence as to why those in power should listen to it.

UK governments also use Beachwatch data for their own internal policy discussions – the Scottish Government have even put it on parliamentary record how much they value Beachwatch and use it when considering marine litter policy.

Although it’s recorded on UK and Channel Island beaches, your litter survey data reaches even further. We follow the ‘OSPAR methodology’, meaning we use the same method to run litter surveys as volunteers in other North-East Atlantic countries . Through OSPAR, 15 governments and the EU work together to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. We know the ocean doesn’t adhere to boundaries or borders, so we need to make sure your data is being used to help influence international policy too!

The Beachwatch data collected during the Great British Beach Clean also contributes to the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), an international event run by US-based charity The Ocean Conservancy which takes place each year on the third Saturday of September each year. We align our Great British Beach Clean with the ICC, so the data collected by our volunteers can contribute to it, which is why the dates of the Great British Beach Clean vary slightly each year. Last year, globally, ICC volunteers removed over 15 million litter items from beaches around the world – and your GBBC cleans contributed to this!

So, the next time you’re completing a litter survey on your beach clean just think, it won’t just be being used here in the UK, but also across the world!

When we say we couldn’t do any of our marine litter work without you and the Beachwatch litter surveys you submit, we really do mean it. Those small tallies add up to so much more – from change-making campaigns to government policies and academic research. Although we’ve shared so many success stories over the years together, there’s still litter on our beaches, so the work continues.

We'll keep using your litter survey data at meetings, in consultation responses, in parliamentary briefings, in press interviews, in research and more to get the changes you and our ocean need. Thank you for everything you do to help make it possible.