Department for Culture, Media and Sport
I belong to a wonderful group of people called Dorset Devils (157 volunteers with an age range of 5-85), founded by Peter Ryan just over three years ago. We all love Bournemouth, but hate the litter that gets deposited all along our streets and our spectacular beaches. We therefore go out and voluntarily clear the rubbish when we can. It helps to be slightly mad to continually clear other people’s mess, but particularly heartbreaking is all the plastic and micro-plastic on our beach, which is fatal to our ocean and its marine life.
We each cover our own ‘patch’ whenever it suits us and sometimes come together as TeamDD. We join and support other like-minded groups:- Surfers Against Sewage, Clean for the Queen, Great Dorset Beach Clean and Bournemouth University SUBU. More the merrier.
We try to help people realise what the impact is of carelessly discarding rubbish by our example, but until they do, we will continue to pick up cans, plastic bottles, broken glass, food containers, wet wipes, cotton buds and even disposable nappies!
However unbelievable, we do have a great time doing it! We get exercise and fresh air, enjoy new friendships along the way, and have the satisfaction afterwards of seeing a stretch of clear golden sand. It’s community based, 100% voluntary and with a lot of social interaction and fun every time. Helps create some pride where we live and it’s very rewarding.
Help make a difference out there. Visit our website dorsetdevils.org for more details of our group in Bournemouth, Dorset. Also, view litteraction.co.uk if you live in a different part of the UK.
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