Bring The Beach Home
March 2020 saw the start of a challenging few years, with the first of the lockdown restrictions being implemented due to COVID-19. In response to the lack of physical connection to nature caused as a result of these restrictions, Litter Free Coast and Sea Somerset led a social media campaign to encourage people to #BringTheBeachHome. This was run in partnership with Litter Free Coast and Sea Dorset and Leave Only Footprints.
The campaign aimed to bring activities that people would normally do on the beach into their homes, to entertain people both physically and mentally, while keeping both adults and children connected to the environment at a time when access to these places was restricted.
All of the activities encouraged people to think about how they could benefit from the beach, all from within their own home and garden, and included at-home picnics accompanied by ocean soundtracks, beach themed workouts, photography competitions and ocean themed quizzes! Activities were promoted through social media – the post with the highest reach and engagement overall was the postcard craft activity, where people made their own beach-themed postcards to send to friends and family. Whilst the poster competition had the highest reach/engagement on Facebook, on Twitter the post introducing the campaign had the highest impression/engagement, while the yoga/ beach meditation posts had the highest reach/engagement on Instagram.
#KeepItClean
The Keep It Clean campaign was run during first Lockdown of 2020 to show the some of the most beautiful spots on the Severn Estuary. These photographs were overlaid with the messages of #LitterFree and #KeepItClean to encourage people to think about their behaviour, and to reduce littering. The campaign aimed to remind people how beautiful the natural environment is and that it needed to remain as clean as in the beautiful photographs, even when restrictions were lifted and communities could start to use visit their local beaches again.
PPE
The use of Personal Protection Equipment (or PPE) became much more widespread throughout spring and summer of 2020. In response to frequent messages from people about disposable masks and gloves being left on beaches, or found in beauty spots, we ran a campaign to highlight the importance of properly disposing of this sort of PPE. The campaign used stunning photographs of the Severn Estuary contrasted with a photograph of coastal locations across the Estuary littered PPE with the words “Let’s keep Britain Beautiful” and “Bin the Beast. This campaign was focused on reminding people of the importance of bringing their waste home with them to dispose of properly and safely.
Emily Wordley, LFCSS Project Officer, also spoke on “BBC Radio Somerset” about the negative environmental impacts of PPE if it ends up in the natural environment. Advice was shared on how to reduce the chance of your PPE ending up in the environment, as well as reiterating the point that PPE is single use, non-biodegradable and not recyclable.
Social media posts promoted the use of reusable facemasks (including a step-by-step guide to make your own!), as well as other recycling and reusing options for other plastic waste. Sharing relevant content from other organisations increases the reach of key messages that align with Litter Free Coast and Sea outputs.
