Gweek-based plastic-free group Clean Ocean Sailing will be travelling by boat this month to the Scilly Isles with a crew of volunteers to clean up islands usually closed to public access.
The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust have granted the crew special access to nine of the Scillies’ uninhabited islands, where they’ll spend two weeks cleaning plastic and marine litter from the beaches and coastline there. They’ll be moored near the islands in Blue Linnet, a 100-year old former fishing boat lent to the group for the trip.
COS will also be teaming up with local cleanup groups on the islands, and collecting rubbish gathered from previous beach cleans on the islands to bring back to the mainland for recycling.
They have partnered up with local company Odyssey Innovation, who will be recycling some of the plastic into kayaks which will be used to clean up the rivers and beaches around Cornwall. Any rubbish that can’t be recycled by Odyssey Innovation will be sent to be recycled in Exeter, with any leftovers from this process sent to Denmark to a specialist recycling facility.
If you would like to support Clean Ocean Sailing on their journey and future cleanups, you can donate via their JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cleanoceansailing.
They plan to make four trips to the Scillies a year, bringing with them different specialists and volunteers each time.