Strangers meet up for litter pick on a Northumberland beach

After connecting on Facebook, the group decided to spend a day collecting litter on the beach and ended up removing 214kg of waste from the beach, as well as enjoying the fresh air.

Zena Cowell, who joined the litter pick, said: “It was unreal and sad how much we found. There were quite a lot of things like lobster pots under the rocks that we could not even get to. They were stuck in.

“It was just quite sad but it felt good afterwards, how much weight-wise we took off.”

She added: “We all did not know each other and we ended up finding out a lot about each other. We have decided to meet up every six weeks and we will do sections of the beach.

“It was just uplifting that everybody was wanting the same thing.

“We even got one guy on the beach who was not even part of our team and said ‘what are you doing? Can I have a bag?’ and he helped.

“We felt great once it was done, but I was a bit mad that [the litter] was there.”

Much of what the group found was plastic bottles or fishing lines, but larger items such as tyres, car parts, and heavy duty ropes that were too embedded in the sand to move were also discovered.

Due to erosion caused by bad weather in recent months, larger items that have been buried under the beach’s dunes over time have become exposed.

Zena said: “Things that are under the dunes are now starting to stick out, which can be potentially dangerous, so we tried to move most of what we could.”

Through her work for Blyth Wildlife Rescue, Zena knows that litter can “massively” impact marine life.

She said: “We have had lots of animals from the beach that have had fishing line entanglements.”

She added: “Please take it home with you because it is likely to endanger wildlife, or even people.”

The group plans to coordinate future litter picks on community Facebook groups.