Hello my name is Georgie. I have just started as a volunteer Site Warden with Coast Care, and with my family I will be working to achieve ‘Plastic free status’ for Beadnell and surrounding area.
I am a locum GP and mother to three girls, and we are passionate about Northumberland and protecting our coast. I love to stand up paddleboard, surf and swim, and I am in the sea around three to four times a week, all year round. This means I can see changes, damage, and pollution on our beaches first hand. The water sports community has always been well placed to monitor and campaign against ocean pollution and litter. The charity Surfers Against Sewage has run successful campaigns which have included community beach cleans, two minute beach cleans, and more recently tackling the enormous problem of plastic in our ocean and on our beaches.
This year Coast Care and Surfers Against Sewage will be co-ordinating our efforts for the national big spring and autumn beach cleans. Not only will this mean we benefit locally from cleaner beaches; but we can look at the scale of our litter problems at both local and national levels.
The plastics free coastline scheme has been achieved by many communities already around the UK, and I see it as both achievable and important for our area. I will be approaching local businesses and organisations and looking at our relationship with single use plastics, and small changes we can all make to improve this. For instance, encouraging tourists to use or buy a reusable coffee cups or water bottles, or not using plastic straws. Many businesses are already working hard towards this, and we are celebrating this on an Instagram account @beadnell_blue .
We are all looking forward to the summer season on the coast, let’s work together to protect our gorgeous beaches!
Georgie