We live by UK’s ‘best beach’ but it’s gross on sunny days – people dump nappies in the sea and sanitary pads on the sand
LOCALS at the “best beach” in the UK have revealed they dread summer because used nappies are thrown in the sea.
Weymouth in Dorset was voted The Times’ Beach of the Year last month and hailed for having “litter-free sand” – but the reality for locals can be very different.
They find themselves filling bin bags with waste as beachgoers discard nappies in the sea and leave sanitary pads on the sand.
Brian Hallworth dedicates days at a time to clearing the sandy beach, recently finding a “large incontinence pad which had been used as a toilet wipe”.
Pictures from his recent six-day long litter pick show empty booze bottles, plastic wrappers, discarded vapes and even a tractor tyre thrown in the sea.
He also found a pair of trousers saturated in sand and water that someone had chosen not to take home with them.
“The shoreline was the usual mess of litter in amongst the undergrowth which had grown to the point of hiding most of it,” Brian said.
“I made my way back along the shoreline picking up stuff as I went.
“Several times I had to shrug my shoulders and leave some litter that was too deep for me to safely get at or was too big for me to carry.”
Similarly, another litter picker filled a full black bin bag with rubbish in just an hour.
Chris White pulled two used nappies from the sea in that hour, too.
He fumed that the popular beach was “such a mess after a very sunny day” in a Facebook post.
“What is wrong with people in this country?” someone commented. “Nappies in the sea!”
“Disposable nappies from the sea, that’s dreadful,” another echoed.
Weymouth is famed for its crystal-clear waters, wide beach, deckchairs, beach volleyball courts and Jurassic Coast.
The seaside town has a population of just over 53k.
Its iconic esplanade has Georgian architecture and displays Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Clock.
Research has found that plastic items from takeaway food and drink account for most of the litter in the world’s oceans.
What’s more, more than 300k disposable nappies a minute are sent to landfill, incinerated or end up in the environment, including the ocean.