Portland Week volunteers pick up 150kg of litter

Volunteers picked up litter weighing in heavier than a gorilla.

Author: George SharpePublished 4th Sep 2021

Around 150kg of litter's been picked up around Portland as part of Portland week.

That's more than the weight of the average gorilla.

Portland Marina also raised £1113 for Clean Jurassic Coast as part of the festivities.

Most of the money was raised at Saturday's floating festival which drew all sorts of water users to the marina for live music and entertainment.

Bee Woodland is one of the event's organisers. She said:

"The whole week was designed to get people afloat if they've never been in the water before, or try something new if they have, but also to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the marine environment, and to get more people involved in litter picking and raise funds for Clean Jurassic Coast.

"We did save all the litter, we've got it separated off into four different categories. Some of it will go fishing line, and hard plastics will go off to the ocean recovery project which is an initiative by Keep Britain Tidy and that will be recycled into plastic benches."

Bee is disappointed about the amount of general waste they found on the beach that won't be able to be recycled.

"We took a lot of it out of the environment, it's not going to end up in the sea now."

The festivities also included the unveiling of a memorial for Danny the Dolphin, live music on the Moonfleet ship, and entertainment provided by mermaids swimming around the marina.

"The energy around the whole site all week was amazing. Personally, really proud that we were able to support the environmental charities and support the Clean Jurassic Coast team."

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