TIN cans, a broken radio, and an old toilet seat were among the haul by a 50-strong team of litter pickers in West Somerset recently.

Plastic Free Minehead and Plastic Free Exmoor led two community litter picks as part of Keep Britain’s Tidy Great British Spring Clean.

More than 50 people came along to help and over a period of two hours, 18 sacks of litter were collected from the beach and in Minehead town. This included a large number of tin cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles. Surprising finds included an old toilet seat, a garden chemical sprayer and a broken radio on Saturday, March 16.

On Saturday, March 23, it was the turn of Plastic Free Exmoor to lead a community clean-up in the village of Dunster. A total of 26 people attended the event and collected over six sacks of litter, the majority of which was collected from the car park at Dunster Steep and from along the A39.

Surprising items included a large paper towel dispenser, a golf ball and a Walkers crisp packet dating back to 2010.

At both events an audit was carried out of all the branded items that were found. This information is shared with the charity Surfers Against Sewage, which as part of their Million Mile Clean campaign collect data to establish which companies are responsible for producing the most single use plastic products that end up littering our environment. At both events packaging from McDonalds, Coca Cola and Cadburys were among the most frequent items collected.

Plastic Free Communities would like to thank everyone who came along to help, as well as Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset, Minehead Town Council, Minehead Coast and Development Trust, The Severn Estuary Partnership, The Beach Hotel, Minehead, Exmoor National Park, The Butlins “Green Team” and idverde for their help in supporting these events.

A spokesperson for Plastic Free Communities said: “We would like to thank the wonderful volunteers who gave up their time to help with these two events. Despite heavy rain and hail showers they did an incredible job of removing large amounts of plastic pollution and other litter from our environment.”