Working hard to clean up Sunderland’s coastline

The city hosted a special event for World Environment Day and World Oceans Day at Hope Street XChange, aimed at inspiring others to support our planet.

Around 50 people attended the session on Friday, June 7 and learned more about plastic and air pollution, endangered species conservation and climate impact.

Durham Wildlife Trust had more than 20 people sign up to its 30 Days Wild campaign, which calls on participants to do something “wild” every day for 30 days.

Sunderland University’s Health, Safety and Environment team asked people at the event to make personal pledges to help reduce their climate impact, which ranged from going vegan, switching to renewable energy to cycling to work.

The event ended with a group beach clean at Roker, which was also supported by the Link School in Pallion.

Among the 10kg of rubbish collected, every piece of plastic was recorded by The Marine Conservation Society and will go on to provide key information for their research into which pollutants are affecting which coastlines of the UK and what action needs to be taken.

Katy Sawyer, event coordinator at Hope Street Xchange, said: “On Roker Beach, for example, we collected mostly lost/abandoned fishing gear, including rope, fishing line, lures and even hooks.

“This has prompted the Maine Conservation Society to explore the idea of provided bins on the pier specifically to encourage those fishing to dispose of their gear in a responsible way.”