Sir David Attenborough and litter pickers praised for cleaning up beaches

Litter on beaches has almost halved in the past three years and Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series may be partly responsible for the improvement, according to a conservation charity.

The number of pieces of litter found per 100 metres of beach fell from 718 in 2017 to 425 this year.

The results are from the annual Great British Beach Clean by the Marine Conservation Society. The study shows a consistent downward trend, with 601 pieces collected per 100m in 2018 and 558 in 2019.