Exmouth beach clean group tops one tonne of litter

More than a tonne of rubbish has been cleared from a Devon beach so far this year, putting volunteers on track to surpassing their 2025 total, organisers say.

Plastic Free Exmouth, which hosts weekly clean-up events along the town's two-mile (3.2km) beach, said volunteers had collected more than 1,000kg (2,200lb) of waste so far in 2026, compared with 1,500kg (3,300lb) in the whole of 2025.

Group leader Jill Gathercole said it was unclear whether the increase reflected more litter being left behind or a rise in volunteer numbers.

She said the group collected between 30kg and 50kg (66lb and 110lb) of waste during each clean and urged beachgoers to take any rubbish away with them.

Gathercole said the group having grown to more than 70 volunteers could be the cause of the increase.

"We don't know if it's because there's just more litter being left or the fact that we've now got more volunteers collecting, which is a good thing," she said.

Gathercole asked beachgoers to "please just leave your footprints and take away everything else with you".

She said: "There's so many bins. We have such fantastic support from Exmouth Town Council and East Devon Council in relation to cigarette butt bins, which are now around the town.

"We've got barbecue bins all the way along the seafront, so people don't need to leave their disposable barbecues there.

"The general litter bins are regularly collected, so there's plenty of things in place where people just need to use them."

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