Beach Clean Challenge: Competition Winners

This summer we challenged you to go on a beach clean with your friends and family. We asked you to send us a photo of your findings and to let us know if you discovered anything unusual. Wow, how awesome you all are! Thanks to you, buckets and bags and sacks full of rubbish have been collected. We are so proud of you all! 

Congratulations to our five lucky winners: 

Abigail, 7, Suffolk

Harvey, 8, Devon

“I went for a ‘Paddle 4 Plastics’ to clean Brixham breakwater. I collected lots of marine litter from in between the rocks of the breakwater inside my local Harbour. The litter was mostly rope and plastic rubbish. We saw lots of big barrel jellyfish and Herring gulls. I got a good feeling from helping to protect sea creatures!”

Luke and Grace, 6 & 3, Cheshire

Rosa, 8, Bordon

“This is me with all the things I found on a beach clean near Chichester. I did the beach clean with my parents and our dog Frith. My mummy and I went through it all and made a list of what we found, some things were from all over the world! We didn't see any marine life but we recently went to the Azores to see whales but I also saw cigarette butts everywhere so I have written to the president of the Azores and asked him to do something about it.” 

Abigail, 7, York

What you've won:

These TWO fantastic eco-friendly toys from our friends at Brainstorm Toys are on their way to you! 

Eugy is an eco-friendly craft collectable made from environmentally friendly recycled card and printed with rice-based natural ink. Eugys are easy to assemble and fun to build!

We loved receiving ALL of your photos and beach clean finds! A big thank you to everyone else who entered:

Arrietty, 2, Newark 

Alistar, 9, Derby 

Ben, 9, East Sussex

Noah, 7

"Noah was really looking forward to taking part in this months competition as we live by the coast it seemed like a lovely idea to get involved in something local that would help the coast and community. However, it did not quite go according to plan. We have visited the beach on a number of occasions as we usually do with bikes and scooters but there was no litter to pick!

Along the seafront, there is a ‘Visit Felixstowe’ beach hut which is manned by volunteers and has a litter pick up stand with bags and pickers. We also have the Felixstowe beach litter pick group which is another independent volunteer group and although there must obviously be some litter, they both do such a fantastic job that it isn’t there when we have visited! So although Noah was disappointed not to be able to take part - it is lovely knowing that these groups are doing such a great job in keeping our beach clean!

He did, however, want me to share with you a picture of him with his ‘Planet Happy’ medal he earned by taking part in The Great British Children’s Challenge! He became a recycling superhero!"

James, 5, Isle of Wight

Isaac, 7, Sussex

"On Saturday 29 June 2019, I went to Chalkwell Beach in Southend on Sea with my stepbrother, stepsister, step mum and a friend, William and his mum. I am wearing a tiger t-shirt. We collected 3 and a half bags of rubbish in total. Some of the things we found were cans, bottles, plastic forks, one reusable plastic bag and the strangest thing was 6 shoes / flip flops. I hope to help the planet and our environment to get better and I like the magazine this month."

Anna, Athens, Greece

Chloe, 9, Spain

Leo, 2, Devon

"My young son, Leo (nearly 3) is a keen member of Surfers Against Sewage. He joined when he was just a baby and we very quickly began including beach cleans as part of our weekend walks. We were living in Devon at the time and so it felt natural to educate him about reducing plastic and helping our planet. 

A year ago we moved to Lake Como in Italy and although we are having a real adventure there we have been missing the stunning coastlines of Devon and Cornwall. We’re currently visiting friends and family in England and on a recent visit to Exmouth beach he yelped “Mummy, look recycling!” when he noticed some plastic cups on the sand. So we collected them and used the litter picker on the beach to collect some more bits of plastic and put them in the recycling bins. It’s wonderful to hear him chatting about why we have to collect it and save marine life. I’m one proud Mummy! This visit has inspired us to look out for plastic on the shores of Lake Como when we return back to Italy."

Amy, 7, Cumbria 

"I went to our local beach at St.Bees and did a beach clean with my mam and my brother. We picked up lots of rubbish which was sad. Most of it had been washed up rather been left by visitors to the beach which made me glad that people here were looking after their beach. We have lots of wildlife on our beach including crabs, mussels, jellyfish, seals and even sharks!"