How to Keep the Beach Clean with Kids

In this article we will talk about how you and your family can keep the beach clean. We will talk about the importance, benefits and where you can find a group beach clean this summer!

Do you and your family enjoy visiting the beach? Presumably, when you visit you like the beach to be litter free and clean. That doesn’t happen by itself. Unfortunately, people often litter on our beaches and marine litter is often washed up. Thousands of marine animals worldwide have been affected.

They have been mainly affected by plastic pollution. Marine animals affected by pollution include sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals. Beach cleans are vital to reduce the problems caused by ocean debris and the danger that plastic pollution poses to marine life.

How to Keep the Beach Clean with Kids

So how can you keep the beach clean with kids? You can firstly educate your children, so that they know the impact litter can have on marine life.

Encourage your child to pick up any litter they may find. Make it fun so that they want to participate. You could call it a treasure or scavenger hunt.

Along the way ask your child to also look out for special shells, unusual shaped stones, crabs, sea glass and shark egg cases also known as mermaid purses.

(A picture of shark egg cases often found on beaches!)

You may also want to take a metal sieve and look for microplastics, they are tiny, found in the sand and can cause a lot of damage to marine life.

Benefits of Cleaning Up Your Local Beach

Here are just a few benefits of encouraging your child to take part in beach cleans:

• Protects marine animals
• Perserves our environment
• Benefits the community
• Creates a safer environment
• Removes toxic chemicals from the sea
• Makes seafood safer
• Gets you out in the fresh air
• Helps you socialise and meet more like-minded families

 Why Keeping the Beach Clean is Important

You may think that keeping the beach clean is an impossible task, or that your efforts won’t make a difference?

Well, according to the 2 minute beach school here is why it’s so important:

• Every piece of plastic that you remove from the beach/sea is no longer a danger to the animals that still live there.
• Every piece of litter you pick up off the street will not enter the waterways and end up in the sea
• Every item removed from the ocean will not degrade into thousands of tiny, toxic pieces of micro plastic and end up being ingested by fish or sea mammals.
• Beach cleaning gets you outside, helps to keep you healthy and fit and feeling good, and enables you to take care of nature
• Small actions add up to make a big difference.

The 2 Minute Foundation

The 2 Minute Foundation (2minute.org) is a national charity that helps to share the importance of keeping our blue and green spaces litter free. All it takes is 2 minutes, yes that’s right, 2 minutes of your time to look after the planet. You can make a difference right now by simply picking up litter for 2 minutes to help the very place that you have gone to seek solace, thrive. 80% of litter found in the oceans is from in-land waste finding its way to the closest watercourse that eventually, one way or another through bad weather, drains or entering a stream, a river, or a canal, ends up in the ocean.

THEIR VISION: TO LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT LITTER AND PLASTIC POLLUTION, WHERE NATURE THRIVES.

THEIR MISSION: WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO CLEAN UP OUR PLANET, 2 MINUTES AT A TIME.

Every second breath we take is thanks to the ocean where phytoplankton photosynthesize that gives us oxygen. It is also our largest carbon sink, and we all need to protect it.

The charity campaigns to pick up litter on the beach, and in-land in national parks, green spaces, towns, and cities through their #2MinuteBeachClean and #2MinuteLitterPick campaigns. They also deliver environmental learning through their beach school, community events, talks, and corporate partnering that focuses on what we can all do today as a collective to mitigate our impact.

Everyone can be a part of their community by doing a #2minutelitterpick or #2minutebeachclean at your local patch. Even better, shout about it to your friends and family and use the hashtags on your social channels!

For litter picking inspiration, positive eco news and to be a part of the 2 Minute Community, you can get involved on socials by following @2minutehq or head over 2minute.org to learn more about the charity and how you can get involved in their campaigns to make the planet a better place.

How to find a Beach Clean by me?

Here are a few beach schools and beach cleans coming up , some on the Club hub directory, some not.

Various days

• Hi5’s Pokesdown Bournemouth, provides a Hi5’s Holiday Club service for school children up to the age of 11 years old at the nursery setting. Boscombe Beach is less than a mile away, which gives the children a unique opportunity to learn about the seafront environment through scavenger hunts and take an active part in beach cleaning with the local community.
• Dad La Soul Worthing Playdates is a revolutionary, grassroots movement that uses the arts, music, tech and play to tackle social isolation in dads and kids. They often take part in fun on the beach and beach cleans!
• The 2 minute foundation, Bude. A beach school which offers home ed weekly classes, teen twilight sessions and family weekend sessions and beach cleans too.

Why not take a look at our directory, you may be able to find a beach school or beach clean going on local to you. Howe we if not we have listed a few below. If you know of any please do let us know by emailing our director Tessa on [email protected].

The Coffee Cup Challenge!

Has this blog article inspired you? Do you want to make a difference to our planet today? You can join the 2 minute foundation eliminating the use of single use cups,

So to get involved simply…

• Make a pledge to be a part of the Coffee Cup Challenge by completing a short form
• Use your reusable cup/bottle for the month
• Say no to single use – use your reusable cup/bottle when getting drinks when you’re out and about
• Share the challenge with your friends and family – download our social asset pack here!

We hope you have enjoyed this article and we hope that next time you go to the beach you will be really mindful to keep the beach clean and look after our planet!!