By Lesley Walsh
ALMOST 600 volunteers have given over 880 hours to help clean 1.95 metric tonnes of litter from local beaches.
The impressive statistics were revealed by Ards and North Down Beach Cleaners who have been clearing rubbish and all manner of potentially dangerous detritus from local coastlines for a number of years.
In a run-down of the group’s annual activities, Bangor woman, Lesley Crawshaw, who runs the environmental group’s Facebook page, where clean-ups are organised, revealed there had been 36 group clean-ups in the past year, involving 588 people who volunteered 889 hours to clean local sands.
Over the year, those volunteers have packed 1.95 metric tonnes into 249 bags, and had lifted many large items, to create safer, cleaner spaces for users across the Ards and North Down Borough – which boasts the longest coastline in Northern Ireland.
Unveiling this year’s catalogue of rubbish, Lesley said: “Having completed our group clean-ups for 2025 I thought you’d like to see a summary of this year’s efforts. Thanks to everyone that came out to help and make a difference to our beautiful coastline.”
And she revealed: “The largest haul of rubbish collected in the past year was a whopping 895 kilograms collected during a single beach clean at Ballyfrench Bay near Millisle – for the third year running.”
“This one beach clean accounted for 46% of the total weight of litter we lifted as a group in 2025. We shall be back to Ballyfrench in 2026,” she confirmed.
Last year Lesley received a Certificate of Recognition for her outstanding contribution to the environment from councillor Alistair Cathcart during his time as Ards and North Down Mayor.
She has described the items picked up by the volunteers as including ‘the usual rubbish – cans, bottles, polystyrene fast food containers, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, bottlecaps, some masks, drinks lids, cups, and bits of broken down plastic’.
“We find a wide variety of litter washed up along the coastline. It’s shocking how much washes up daily.”
