Nurse fights back against plastic beach waste

It is no secret that Britain's shores are plagued with plastic - but a nurse from Brighton is fighting back against marine litter, one beach at a time.

Sammie Aplin is an NHS nurse and an advanced clinical practice student at the University of Brighton, who spends her spare time combing beaches for plastic waste.

Aplin began collecting plastic from the tide line in 2020 as she walked along the beach to work, putting whatever she found into her artwork so it did not end up in landfill.

Now, Aplin has gained thousands of followers on her Instagram page, The Plastic Coast, and has dozens of people on a waiting list to buy her bespoke pieces.

"I think people are starting to realise the impact we're having on our planet, the amount of stuff we're creating in general is huge," she said.

"Seeing the scale of plastic washed up on our beaches is quite frightening actually, and by people buying the artwork or beach cleaning for bits to be put in the work, they're helping give that plastic a second life.

"People do care about the planet and they really want to help, so it's great to be a part of that.

"It is a busy life but I love it... I feel like I've got a good balance between work, studying and my little side business."

Coral Evans is the founding director of Leave No Trace Brighton - an action group to protect and preserve the health of Brighton's seafront.

"We're just at the beginning of summer and [plastic waste] has been consistently bad on sunny days, the heatwave was diabolical" Evans said.

Leave No Trace Brighton says it cleared 800.75kg of mainly plastic waste from the seafront in 2025 - of which it said 78% was recyclable.

Meanwhile, the Marine Conservation Society said it found single-use plastic on 97% of beaches it surveyed in the UK and Channel Islands last year.

Evans said: "The environment is in crisis... the tiny bits [of plastics] are the worst because they can be mistaken as food for marine life, they break down into microplastics, and get lost in the shingle.

"What Sammie is doing is incredible, we've built a beautiful relationship over the last few years. When we do our beach cleans, we sort through all our rubbish and occasionally we'll find some treasures that we'll hand over to Sammie.

"Not only are Sammie's pieces gorgeous, they're raising awareness of the issue, so we can't thank her enough for what she's doing. I think it's wonderful."

Leave No Trace Brighton urges anyone visiting the city's beaches this summer to put their rubbish in a bin, or take it home with them if the bins are full.

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