July 2019 Club Meeting of Soroptimists International St Austell & District

7/5/2019

Location: Porthpean Golf Club
Photographer: Rowena Castillo Nicholls

It's another great evening at our July club meeting. Emily Stevenson, was our brilliant speaker. Emily is the co-founder of Beach Guardian.

Beach Guardian CIC is a Community Interest Company based in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Over the years regular beach cleaning has been done to collect and remove rubbish from the beaches; mainly washed up with the tide and mainly plastics from the sea. We now organise community beach cleans and conduct educational workshops with schools and other groups so that we are connecting people with the environment to improve health and wellbeing.

The project’s aims and objectives include:
1) More regular, organised, community Beach Cleans and to encourage participation in the #2MinuteBeachClean initiative.
2) Educational Events to discuss about the impact on our local beaches and seas from plastics in the oceans so that pupils develop care and concern for their natural environment.
3) Encourage more local people to do beach cleans and share their findings which benefits mental health and wellbeing as well as the environment.
4) To record and report dead animals to Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Egg Cases to The Shark Trust and all washed up animals to the Marine Strandings Network.
5) To encourage more local businesses to support the “Final Straw Cornwall” and “Refill Cornwall” initiatives.
6) To encourage local Councils to adopt the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic-free Status Award. See the first two locations here: https://www.facebook.com/PlasticFreePadstow & https://www.facebook.com/PlasticFreeStMerryn.
7) To encourage all of Cornwall’s Harbours and fishermen to engage in the “Fishing for Litter” initiative.
8) To do art installations using plastics found washed up on local beaches to raise awareness.
9) To work with Visit Cornwall, TICs and holiday companies to ensure that visitors to Cornwall engage and are aware of these and other initiatives.
10) To introduce other schemes that have worked elsewhere in the country, such as “fill a bucket with plastic off the beach and claim a free cup of coffee” at beach cafes etc.