Challenge to industry on marine litter

November 20, 2012 | Words By: Hugo

Surfers Against Sewage’s Return To Offender Weekend calls on the public to challenge industry on the growing marine litter crisis.

Surfers Against Sewage is delighted to announce the inaugural Return To Offender weekend on 24th & 25th November, giving the public a fantastic opportunity to challenge businesses about the marine litter crisis. Over the past 15 years the amount of marine litter washing up on UK beaches has almost doubled. The Return To Offender initiative is an activity designed to help individuals and communities confront businesses with items of litter found on UK beaches, asking them to take specific actions including:

• Increasing anti-littering messaging on their products to better inform consumers about reuse, recycling and proper disposal.
• Reducing the amount of packaging used for their products.
• Identifying less harmful packaging options to safeguard the environment.
• Supporting environmental initiatives and community activities to protect oceans and beaches.

The activity will see SAS campaigners and supporters from Land’s End to the Orkney Islands returning to manufacturers pieces of marine litter found on tidelines nationwide asking for more to be done to protect these unique environments. It will also highlight particular sources of marine litter and solutions that can contribute to the reduction of marine litter.

To get involved communities and individuals can download Return To Offender resources at sas.org.uk

The weekend will encourage individual beach cleans through SAS Regional Reps, SAS members, SAS supporters, SAS activists, the general public, supportive local businesses and national businesses. Most of all, SAS will actively promote individual activity of collecting just one or two items of litter from local beaches across the UK.SAS is encouraging all our supporters to take action during the weekend, becoming a part the anti-beach litter campaign.

This method of tackling the issue is a tried and tested one. Currently 5% of all litter found in the UK is from one company, Coca Cola*. Thanks to our Return To Offender campaign Coca Cola has already responded positively and made packaging changes.

SAS aims to encourage up to 1,000 individuals to get involved with the Return to Offender initiative as a result of the weekend.

SAS Beach Litter officer Dom Ferris says: “SAS’s Return To Offender initiative is a powerful reminder to manufacturers that they should do more to tackle the marine litter crisis. Please get involved with making sure your beach has a voice as part of the Return To Offender weekend.”

Surfers Against Sewage would like to thank the Patagonia Tides Foundation for their support in helping make this initiative possible.

*Keep Britain Tidy Brand Litter survey 2010-11