Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful launched its inaugural Beach Clean weekend recently.

With the support of Coca-Cola, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful launched its inaugural Beach Clean weekend. Running just recently, the initiative called on all beach lovers to head down to Portavogie and do their bit to keep our coast clean.

To mark the occasion, Coca-Cola undertook its most ambitious volunteering initiative to date, with hundreds of employees taking to beaches across the island as part of the clean-up. Kicking off the Big Beach Clean weekend, Coca-Cola employees were in action on popular beaches at Portavogie from 9am, Magilligan from 10am, and Tyrella from 10am this past September, and called on local residents to join them.

In its first year running across Northern Ireland, the Big Beach Clean has the backing of the International Ocean Conservancy, making it a part of the world’s largest coastal clean-up event and marine litter survey. 

As part of the clean-up, volunteers recorded the litter collected using Ocean Conservancy data cards which fed into the Ocean Conservancy annual report – helping improve the environment for our rich variety of ocean dwelling creatures, some of which are internationally recognised.

Couldn’t make it to Portavogie? For anyone wishing to join in regular beach cleans, check out Beach Cleaners - Ards and North Down on Facebook - they run regular local events throughout the year.

Jodie McAneaney, Live Here Love Here Manager at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, comments:  “It’s been a great summer for exploring our beautiful beaches, highlighting just how important it is that we get together as a community and keep them clean and safe so we can enjoy them for generations to come.”

Jodie continues:  “It’s important we educate people on protecting our marine life and our coastline – it’s such a crucial part of our environment and also our heritage here in Northern Ireland - known for its jaw dropping coastline which attracts tourists and film crews from all over the world.  Something we should be proud to take great care of.”