The Evolution Group team and their families conducted a beach clean at Grandes Rocques Bay as part of Plastic Free July.
Led by The Clean Earth Trust the team removed 11.2kg of litter from the beach in just two hours. The experience led to the team setting themselves a plastic free challenge.
The Evolution Group’s Operations Director, Leyla Abreu, says “As a team we’re all very aware of reducing the amount of plastic we use and decided that a group activity such as the beach clean, with a focus on the environmental impact of plastic would be a great way of giving further impetus to our efforts.
“It was an eye-opening experience as when we arrived at the beach we commented on how clean it looked and thought there wouldn’t be much litter for us to collect, yet just two hours later we were stood with bags totalling 11.2kg of rubbish between us. It was a stark reminder of just how overrun by waste our environment is, and that much of it isn’t immediately visible.
“The guidance provided by The Clean Earth Trust was incredibly valuable and we all left the session feeling not only informed on coast-based litter and the importance of monitoring it, but also greatly inspired to ‘choose to refuse’ single use plastics.”
The Evolution Group team then put their money where their mouth is and set themselves a challenge of dedicating 29th July to change their habits and ‘choose to refuse’ single use plastics. The participants paid a £2 penalty for every use of single-use plastic that day.
Leyla Abreu continues, “Although the challenge itself was only one day, it’s about changing habits for the long term. It forced us to focus on each and every single use plastic we use and encouraged us to find an alternative, and the aim is that alternative then becomes permanent. We decided to strike while the iron was hot and the memory of the plastic we collected from the beach was still fresh in our minds.”
The £88 of penalties collected is being donated to The Evolution Group’s chosen charity, Safer. The money will be put towards buying a shower gel dispenser for Safer’s refuge bathroom. They currently receive many donations of shower gels in plastic bottles and would like to be able to shift this to a more environmentally friendly option of bulk shower gel donations.
