SATURDAY saw 125 volunteers involved in Surfers Against Sewage’s biggest-yet clean-up of Minehead beach.

The main target was plastic pollution, which causes major problems for marine wildlife and persists in the environment for hundreds of years, and in just two hours they removed:

* 147 plastic bottles

* 104 drinks cans

* 12 glass bottles

* Nine full bin bags of general and non-recyclable rubbish (including fishing line and net)

* A bucket of metal pieces

* A two-litre tub of cigarette butts

* And a big, blue plastic barrel

The event was jointly run with Plastic Free Minehead as part of SAS’s UK-wide Autumn Beach and River Clean, which has seen 487 beaches and river banks cleaned up in the last few weeks across the country.

It was also supported by West Somerset Together and the Somerset’s Brilliant Coast Project and hosted by the Beach Hotel, which provided free hot drinks, the space to display information and space to collect and sort all the litter.

Data on the Minehead and other clean-ups will be given by SAS to the Government as it looks to implement a deposit return system for food and drinks containers.