50 Years of Beach Litter on Skye – with Loughborough University

From July 22nd to August 5th, a team of Environmental Scientists from Loughborough University will be visiting Skye to conduct a research project that has the Skye community at its heart.

The Loughborough team say:
We will return to Skye 50 years after a seminal academic publication observed that litter on beaches around Elgol originated primarily from marine, not land-based, sources.

The 50 Years of Litter on Skye project will explore what types of litter persist on the island’s beaches in the modern day, and in what quantity. In addition to surveying beaches for litter, this work will engage with the Skye community across the generations to learn how litter on Skye’s beaches has changed, and what the presence of litter on the island means to this communities. We are keen to hear from you if you would like to talk to us, and we welcome you to our beach surveys and associated clean-ups whilst we are on the island.

If you would like to join us on the beaches during our surveys, come along at any time during the day. We will be primarily focussed on logging the types of litter on the beaches during these surveys, and so unfortunately may not be able to clear the whole beach. If you would like to clean a beach, we will be hosting beach cleans from 3-4pm on specified days where we will remove as much litter as we are able to with the help of anyone who can attend.

Read more about the Loughborough research on Skye here.

Dates:
23 Jul – Elgol & Glasnakille – Survey only
24 Jul – Camasunary – Survey only
25 Jul – Dunvegan – Survey & Clean
26 Jul – Neist Point – Survey only
28 Jul – Ullinish – Survey only
29 Jul – Torrin – Survey & Clean
01 Aug – Loch Ainort – Survey only
03 Aug – Knock Bay – Survey only

Please contact Emily or Peggy at skye.beachcleans@gmail.com for more detail on survey and clean locations, or to find out more!