MORE than 30 volunteers made a clean sweep of Minehead sea front and beach on bank holiday Saturday, picking up litter as a contribution to the day’s Minehead Bay Festival.

A spokesperson said: “A huge thank you to everybody who came along to the Plastic Free Minehead and Plastic Free Exmoor gazebo to pick up litter pickers and collecting bags.”

From 12 noon until 4.30 pm, volunteers, including lots of young children and their families, scoured the beach collecting ocean debris that had washed ashore plus litter dropped by visitors.

At the start of the day, volunteers were asked to look for at least one piece of litter from each of Surfers Against Sewage's ‘Dirty Dozen’ polluters list - and they did.

The league table of the number of items picked up read: McDonald’s 30, Coca-Cola nine, Haribo nine, Pepsi eight, Monster Energy six, Cadbury three, Stella Artois three, Mars two, Walkers Crisps two, Red Bull two, Tesco one, and Lucozade one.

Milkshake and soft drink cups with plastic linings highlighted the problems caused by composite packaging which is not suitable for normal household recycling.

Also found were 20 glass bottles, 37 aluminium cans, and 16 plastic bottles which were taken to Minehead Recycling Centre.

Due to the work of volunteers, four sacks of unrecyclable litter and debris were collected from Minehead Beach and the sea.

The spokesperson said: “We are very grateful to some of our regular volunteers who came along at the end of the festival to carry out a final clean-up of the sea front area.

“Their continued support makes such a difference.

“Thank you to everybody who gave up their time, picked up litter, sorted the recycling, and helped us keep Minehead cleaner.

“Every piece of litter removed is one less that can make its way back into the sea.”