{"id":14573,"date":"2016-03-13T14:35:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T14:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/?p=14573"},"modified":"2021-01-19T13:48:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T13:48:34","slug":"wild-beaches-on-a-plastic-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wild-beaches-on-a-plastic-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild beaches on a plastic planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BenOur wild and far-flung places don\u2019t come much wilder or more far-flung than Sandwood Bay<\/a>, a mile-long sweep of sand just a few miles south of Cape Wrath in northwest Sutherland.<\/p>\n

250 miles from the Central Belt, four miles from the nearest road, flanked by high cliffs and surrounded by upland blanket bog, Sandwood is the epitome of wild, the embodiment of remote. This isn\u2019t somewhere that you happen upon, this is somewhere you plan to visit. And last week, like so many others who seek out wild places in order to feel revitalised and connected to something more fundamental and essential, I did just that.<\/p>\n

\"Pristine<\/a>

Pristine Sandwood Bay in September 2003.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019d visited once before, way back in 2003 when I camped overnight high above the dunes, long after the daytrippers had gone home. The next day I walked the lonely cliffs to Cape Wrath and back and never saw a soul. The experience left a long-lasting impression and afterwards I\u2019d wax lyrical about Sandwood Bay to anyone who\u2019d listen, telling of a huge pristine beach where Atlantic breakers rolled like curls of butter onto the sand, where ghosts patrolled the dunes and gannets plunged into the surf.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d built it up so much that I already knew my second visit couldn\u2019t possibly have the same emotional impact, but I was confident that Sandwood Bay would still impress. And true enough, as I crested those final dunes and the roar from the sea washed over me, I felt my heart beat faster. <\/p>\n

What a view! The azure waves breaking, the seaspray moving past the cliffs like clouds, the ocean-borne rubbish in th\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

Oh, hang on, there\u2019s something in the foreground. Something blue on the beach. Erm\u2026sorry, where was I? Ah yes. The azure waves breaking, the seaspray moving past the cliffs like clouds, the ocean-borne rubb\u2026.<\/p>\n

Damn it!<\/p>\n

Looking down the beach and out to Cape Wrath the view should have been immense. But it wasn\u2019t. I\u2019d emerged from the dunes within ten metres of a large blue fishing crate and, try as I might I just couldn\u2019t see past it. Admittedly, one crate hardly represents a visual or ecological assault on somewhere as vast as Sandwood Bay, but it none the less jarred with how I remembered the place.<\/p>\n

I walked past the crate to get an interrupted view north to the Cape, but I had eyes in the back of my head. The crate was insistent. As I walked farther along the beach my gaze was fixed firmly at my feet, because what did I now see as I trudged the sand? Plastic. Lots and lots of plastic.<\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/a>

Drawing the eye and hard to ignore.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yoghurt pots, gloves, nylon rope, crab pots, sweet wrappers, bottle tops, and numerous smaller items that were unidentifiable \u2013 the \u2018microplastics\u2019, tiny pieces just millimetres across and of all different colours, like confetti. A rainbow of shame scattered across this wildest of places. <\/p>\n

I should however point out that when I say \u2018lots and lots of plastic\u2019 there was by no means so much of it that I couldn’t help kicking rubbish aside with my feet. It\u2019s not like that at all. It\u2019s not piled high or blowing in the wind. Neither is it covering the beach from end to end. I was actively looking for it, plus it was the tail end of winter when fierce storms have brought the worst of it ashore. I\u2019d even go so far as to say that the casual visitor probably wouldn\u2019t even notice any litter. And even if they did they\u2019d think little of it because they\u2019d regard Sandwood Bay as among the cleanest beaches they\u2019ve seen\u2026.because it is! So it\u2019s certainly no less worthy a destination on account of litter because, in truth, you will find the same (and arguably worse) problem on every beach you visit.<\/p>\n

None the less, it didn\u2019t matter how much I roamed the beach in search of that pristine wilderness experience I\u2019d felt 13 years earlier, it just wasn\u2019t there. There was plastic at the loch, by the river, in the dunes and on the beach, and now that I had my eye in for it\u2026..it was all I could see.<\/p>\n

Dismayed, I stopped at a length of blue plastic tubing. I picked it up and used it to draw a small square where I stood, each edge about 2.5m in length. I then gathered all the litter I could find in that one tiny square of sand, and piled it together. It was quite a haul, and it was sobering to imagine how many squares this size filled the beach.<\/p>\n

As a ranger, the bulk of my working week can sometimes involve picking up litter. From laybys, parks, hedges, rivers, playgrounds, trees and ponds. Bags and bags of it. And for that reason I think I need to know that untainted places do exist, that there are still some corners of our coastline that are beyond the reach of the flotsam, jetsam, and filthy detritus that humanity has carelessly or thoughtlessly disposed of.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a na\u00efve hope I admit, even for our wildest places. Only last year I photographed plastic pollution on the beaches of both Mull<\/a> and Islay<\/a>, so I knew it existed in our more remote places too. I knew it was everywhere. But seeing it here, in somewhere particularly far flung, in a place I treasured and where I\u2019d had a singularly uplifting experience\u2026..it brought home to me the extent of this global problem in a way I\u2019d not experienced before.<\/p>\n

Where does it come from?<\/h3>\n

Hardly any of the plastic at Sandwood is brought in by visitors. Globally, about 20% of plastic in the oceans comes from shipping but that masks regional differences. In the North Sea it accounts for 40% of the total, but worldwide around 80% of marine plastic comes from land sources. <\/p>\n

Some countries have little or no waste management\/disposal and even in countries that do, a lot of it escapes the net or is irresponsibly discarded, and lost into the environment. The world over, plastic is washed or blown into watercourses, all of which eventually discharges into the sea.<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/a>

Left: Coming to a beach near you! Plastic bottles & styrofoam from the River Avon in West Lothian. Right: Plastic rubbish at Uisken, Isle of Mull<\/p><\/div>\n

Microplastics smaller than 5mm are the most numerous fragments, many of which are invisible to the naked eye. Some are manufactured at that size such as the tiny beads that are added to cosmetics and toothpastes to aid in scrubbing action. But most others begin their lives as something larger. As the sun, the salt and the ocean turbulence work away at the plastic, it breaks down into ever smaller pieces. But because plastic takes hundreds of years to biodegrade, it accumulates. <\/p>\n

Plastic planet<\/h3>\n

Standing at Sandwood Bay or indeed on any beach you care to mention, the scale of the problem is impossible to grasp because, aside from the occasional unsightly dashes of colour strewn on the beach, the problem is hidden from view. But make no mistake, it\u2019s nothing short of a global environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n

This year the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the oceans every year, the equivalent of one full bin lorry emptying its load into the sea every minute of every day. By 2025 it\u2019s believed there will be 250 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans. Worse still, a recent report presented at the World Economic Forum estimated that by 2050 there would be, in terms of weight, more plastic in the oceans than fish. <\/p>\n

Because of ocean currents, litter doesn\u2019t remain where it is, it moves about and disperses widely. It has been found frozen in polar sea ice and in sediment at the bottom of the deepest marine trenches, at depths of 3000m. From the Arctic to the Antarctic, whether it\u2019s Tongue, Troon, Tahiti or Tierra del Fuego\u2026..plastic pollution is now ubiquitous. <\/p>\n

So what?<\/h3>\n

Other than the obvious aesthetic impact of having rubbish blighting our beaches, it\u2019s our wildlife that suffers most. Sea creatures, birds and land-lubbing animals can all get tangled up or garrotted by discarded lines and nets but, more insidiously, the unseen microplastics are being ingested by both the smallest and the largest marine creatures, from worms to whales. Some do so passively, others because they actively mistake it for food.<\/p>\n

A shocking study of an albatross colony on the Pacific atoll of Midway found dead chicks\u2019 stomachs full of plastic, which had been regurgitated as food by their parents. It\u2019s believed the chicks are starving to death, their stomachs telling them they\u2019re full when they\u2019re not. <\/p>\n

Plastic is an industrial pollutant as it can contain harmful hydrocarbons, antimicrobials, flame retardants or additives. Other toxins joining the party in marine stomachs can include lead, cadmium, mercury and bisphenol A \u2013 the latter a toxin present in plastic bottles, which has been shown to disrupt hormones and cause damage to the reproductive systems of animals. To make matters worse, plastic particles act as magnets to other sea-borne chemicals already out there in the oceans.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure I need to spell it out, but we sit at the top of the food chain. It doesn\u2019t matter how sustainable your fish is, how ethically it was caught, at the end of day what the sea creatures eat, we eat. And so you have to wonder what on earth we are doing to ourselves in the long run, poisoning and then consuming increasingly plastic sea creatures.<\/p>\n

\"Microplastics<\/a>

Microplastics and other fragments washed ashore at Sandwood Bay.<\/p><\/div>\n

We absorb toxins in our everyday lives anyway of course, but there\u2019s little doubt that we are, as a species, poisoning ourselves via our oceans. Poetic justice? Arguably. I\u2019d go so far as to call it karma, were it not for the fact that we seem intent on taking down every other species in the oceans with us when (or most likely before) we go.\u2028<\/p>\n

What can be done?<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s little that can be done about the waste that washes up on beaches other than organising regular beach clean ups. Indeed the John Muir Trust, who manage the Sandwood Estate and who do a great job preserving the bay\u2019s wildness, organise such events every year in an effort to safeguard the beach environment. As do countless other charities and volunteers on other beaches up and down the land.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s commendable, but while it\u2019s one thing to physically pick up the items you can clearly see, it\u2019s another thing entirely to recover the billions of pieces of plastic that you can\u2019t. You\u2019d need to filter the beach through a sieve the size of a football pitch\u2026.but assuming you did, what would be the point?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been involved with clean ups of local parks in my job and it\u2019s extremely satisfying when you leave them looking spotless. You feel optimistic and joyous at having so many volunteers come out to help. You take heart that there ARE people out there who want to take positive action and fight for a cleaner future.<\/p>\n

But the following week the rubbish is back. The next storm dumps whole truck loads of it where you\u2019ve cleaned, and every high tide brings more plastic to the beach\u2026.along with waves of apathy.<\/p>\n

I admit I have apathetic moments where I feel powerless, when I wonder if what I\u2019m trying to do is futile, because litter picking is like being one the last section on a giant production line. You try not to get buried in the waste being carried towards you but until you can get further up the conveyor belt and stop it at source, you\u2019ll never tackle the problem.<\/p>\n

However, even if you do manage to tackle it, the mess it has created still needs to be cleaned up. Futile as it seems we simply cannot let plastic build up in our environment. It\u2019s a danger to wildlife and a danger to us, and doing nothing simply isn\u2019t an option however apathetic we might feel.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>

How much plastic would I find in just one tiny square of beach?<\/p><\/div>\n

To that end, some extraordinary suggestions have been put forward for cleaning our oceans. Vacuums, filters, dams, drains, drones and kites, you name it someone has looked into it, and if they sound far-fetched it\u2019s because these are desperate times. Current consensus, however, is that the task is well beyond our abilities at this juncture, both technologically and financially. The ONLY option is to tackle the problem at source.<\/p>\n

It’s got nothing to do with me<\/h3>\n

Having never knowingly dumped anything into the oceans you may well say it\u2019s someone else\u2019s fault, surely? But no. We\u2019re all inextricably hardwired into the modern consumer society \u2013 using & discarding plastic packaging, plastic bags, flushing cosmetic products down the toilet, sending waste to landfill sites, relying on boats for our fish, and needing ships to cross the oceans to deliver our worldly goods. We\u2019re all responsible whether we like it or not.<\/p>\n

On an individual level we can try to eliminate single-use plastics from our lives. We can reduce, reuse and recycle. We can complain about packaging where it isn\u2019t necessary. We can demand that our waste management is slicker, and the cost of packaging perhaps increased to better reflect the cost of cleaning it up, or to simply make it too valuable to throw away. But if that all seems insurmountable or just a drop of gaudy plastic in the ocean\u2026.well I wouldn\u2019t blame you for thinking so.<\/p>\n

Back on the beach…<\/h3>\n

After a couple of hours of rather forlornly and aimlessly roaming Sandwood Bay, long after the last two daytrippers had left, I found myself sat on a dune at the far northern end of the beach. It wasn\u2019t quite the afternoon I\u2019d planned but, in that moment of solitude with the golden sun emerging for the first time, Sandwood Bay<\/a> looked exactly as I remembered it. Big, wild, remote and magnificent. <\/p>\n

But I knew the problem was still there, at this beach and thousands others like it. I sighed. A long inhale to breathe in the salt-heavy maritime air, and a long exhale to expel the apathy and sadness welling up inside me.<\/p>\n

As I walked back towards Blairmore I passed the blue crate. Half buried in sand I pictured it becoming a part of this beach every bit as inevitably as the rotting seaweed and the fragments of shells. Was that an acceptance of a simple fact? Or was it apathy? Either way, at that moment it was hard to feel any sense of optimism. And as I walked back to Blairmore the blanket bog looked unusually bleak\u2026..but not nearly as bleak as our future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our wild and far-flung places don\u2019t come much wilder or more far-flung than Sandwood Bay, a mile-long sweep of sand just a few miles south of Cape Wrath in northwest Sutherland. 250 miles from the Central Belt, four miles from the nearest road, flanked by high cliffs and surrounded by upland blanket bog, Sandwood is the epitome of wild, the embodiment of remote. This isn\u2019t somewhere that you happen upon, this is somewhere you plan to visit. And last week, like so many others who seek out wild places in order to feel revitalised and connected to something more fundamental…<\/span> <\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/div>\n

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