Drugs, flip-flops and a fridge: global beach clean led by Irish group collects varied haul

A global challenge set by a young Irish environmentalist removed more than 10 tonnes of plastic and other litter from beaches in 30 countries over 24 hours.

Flossie Donnelly (19), who began carrying out beach cleans around her home in south Dublin when she was nine, linked with charities and community groups in Europe, Asia, Africa, the United States and New Zealand for her latest venture.

The Global Big Weigh In challenged them to carry out one clean-up on one local beach or river during one outing last week and log their haul of rubbish to collectively measure the results.

It came to 10,434kg of discarded, lost and dumped items that not only spoil the look of natural amenities but are polluting to the environment and lethal to sea life.

The biggest haul was from the Citarum River in Indonesia where Donnelly and her mother Harriet Donnelly have helped set up local action groups.

The environmental organisation Equator ID removed more than 5,000kg of litter, including thousands of disposable nappies.

Around 1,200km away on the Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan, which is marketed to tourists as a tropical paradise, volunteers collected 6,000 cigarette butts in one hour.

In Mumbai, India, sackfuls of flip-flops were gathered, while in North Macedonia volunteers recovered a fridge.

A solo cleaner in Denmark found an item that once would have had a purpose in the sea but had become lost – an echo sounder.

In the Netherlands, clean-up crews reported finding many packages of drugs.

All of the usual finds turned up too – plastic bottles, bags and containers, clothing, personal items, fishing gear, rope, wire, bottle tops, cans and shards and chunks of indeterminate material or purpose.

Fourteen groups from Ireland took part, including a group from Connemara who collected almost a tonne of rubbish.

Flossie Donnelly said the clean-up showed the consequences of unsustainable consumption habits.

“I hope this inspires more people, organisations and, importantly, world leaders to put the health of our planet before short-term profit,” she said.

“We already know what needs to be done – now we need the courage and determination to do it.”

Donnelly is on summer break after her first year studying marine biology at university in Britain, but is keeping up her work with the Flossie and The Beach Cleaners charity she founded.

This was the second global beach clean-up, which last year had participants from 20 countries.

Harriet Donnelly said they were delighted with the spread of the initiative.

“What inspires me most is that so many of these groups are driven purely by passion,” she said.

“Many like us don’t have large budgets or huge social media following, they simply care deeply about protecting their local environment.”