Events

Plasticblitz along the River Rother

A Bioblitz is an event where people find and identify as many species as possible in a given area over a specific period of time. Scientists, families, students and community members work together to get a snapshot of the area’s biodiversity. In the same way, a Plasticblitz is an event bringing together members of a community to find, identify and record the plastic ‘species’ they find.
Strandliners will be working on the River Rother over the period to collect data in the same way as we did for the PPP project.

Please email strandlinersevents@gmail.com if you are interested in taking part:

Wednesday 31st May – Rye Harbour Nature reserve – 2.00 to 4.00 pm

Saturday 10th June – Scots Float – 9.30 to 11.30 am

Sunday 11th June – Monk Bretton Bridge – 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

For more information about PlasticBlitz see the Thames 21 website.

Dungeness

Our quarterly survey for the MCS will take place at Dungeness on Saturday 17th June, 9.30 am to 1.30 pm. Sign up here to register. Please note that this is a challenging event and not suitable for young children or anyone with mobility issues.

Past events

Spring Water Festival

Friday 12th to Sunday 21st May 2023
Organised each year by Plastic Free Eastbourne, there were events and activities across Eastbourne with the theme Take Action for our Precious Water. Strandliners were there for many of the events, including:

Saturday 13th May – EcoFair on the Western Lawns 
Saturday 13th May – Big Seaweed Search on Wish Tower beach 
Tuesday 16th May – Studio at the Lake 
Thursday 18th May – ‘The Blue Planet’ conference at the Landsdowne Hotel 
Saturday 20th May – Studio on the Beach (zero-waste beach activities) 
Saturday 20th May – Big Seaweed Search at Holywell beach 

Dungeness

Saturday 8th April 2023
This was a survey for the Marine Conservation Society, involving a 45-minute walk on shingle each way to reach our survey area. You can see the results on our surveys page.

Beyond the Litter Pick

Sunday 5th March 2023, 10 am to 12 noon and 1 pm to 3 pm
What happens after the rubbish is sorted, identified and recorded?
We are trying to turn the tide on plastic pollution in the environment. The PPP project uses maps, science and data to identify plastic pollution hotspots.

Love Our Rother

Saturday 18th February 2023
This free event brought various local and national environmental organisations together, including Sussex Wildlife Trust, The Sussex Dolphin Project, Rother District Council, The Environment Agency, Rother Voluntary Action, UN Climate & Oceans, Strandliners and others. We encourage everyone to show some love to their environment, not just on Valentine’s Day, but all year round.

Dungeness

Saturday 21st January 2023
This was a survey for the Marine Conservation Society, involving a 45-minute walk on shingle each way to reach our survey area. You can see the results on our surveys page.

Members’ Walk

Saturday 28th January 2023
On our annual members’ walk, we looked at the 5000-year-old submerged forest, searched for fossils (even dinosaur footprints!) and hunted for treasure.

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Sunday 29th January 2023, 10.00 am – 2.00 pm
Saltmarsh clean-up & survey, Preventing Plastic Pollution presentation and discussion at the Discovery Centre.

Beckley

Monday 6th February, 11.30 am – 1.00 pm
Walk along the Petty Knell stream past the Southern Water wastewater treatment works, plus small clean-up & survey. 

Battle

Monday 6th February, 7.30 pm to 9 pm
Preventing Plastic Pollution presentation & discussion. Survey to follow.

River Rother

Saturday 11th February, 10 am to 12 noon
Rye (Scots Float & Tennis Club) PPP clean-up. Register at strandlinersevents@gmail.com to take part.

Tuesday 14th February – 10 am to 12 noon
Rye (North Point & Golf Club) PPP clean up. Register at strandlinersevents@gmail.com to take part.

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2022

The Great Nurdle Hunt

Run in conjunction with Fidra each October, Strandliners hold a number of events, identifying primary microplastic & recording numbers of nurdles & bio-beads. In 2022 we ran nurdle hunts at Camber Sands and Cuckmere Haven. You can see the results on our Fidra page.

Break Free from Plastic Brand Audit

Strandliners carried out a brand audit of the rubbish left on the beach after a busy weekend, over the summer holiday. The data were collated and sent to BreakFreeFromPlastic as part of their global campaign to find the world’s worst polluting companies so they can lobby for change.

Great British Beach Clean

This annual event is held in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society in the third weekend in September. Strandliners carried out beach cleans and surveys at Dungeness, Rye, Pett Level, Winchelsea Beach, Hastings and Bexhill.
You can find the results of all our Marine Conservation Society surveys here.

Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat Open Day

Strandliners supported the PLIRB open day on 28th August. There was a display of our local work and findings, and details of our new project, as well as some (not to be missed!) activities.

Pett Flower Show

We had a stand at the Pett Flower Show on July 30th. Amongst many other stalls and activities, Strandliners had a stand exhibiting our local work, our findings, as well as some (not to be missed!) activities.

Fairfest

Strandliners were at Fairfest on June 5th. We showed some of our local work and our findings, and set up activities for all the family. Thank you to all the lovely people who stopped to talk to us about our work.

Eastbourne Spring Water Festival

We were at the Eco-Fair on the Western Lawns in Eastbourne on Saturday 14th May, where we were able to chat to lots of lovely people and try out some new activities. We were also at Holywell beach on Saturday 21st May, where we invited people to discover our microplastic legacy, become a microplastic detective, find the treasures and identify the trash.

Hailsham, Waterweek, Microplastic Surveys

Andy gave a talk and we led a survey, looking for microplastics by the Diplocks stream. You can find out more about Waterweek here.

#Beyond the Beach Clean

All the recycling was collected from a community hub over the month of March toinvestigate what was thrown away. If only 2% (The Story of Plastic) of plastic waste is effectively recycled, what happens to the rest? Where will this go? Members of Strandliners led a brand audit, sorting, identifying and recording it all before it is uploaded to Break Free From Plastic to add to their global database of waste plastic.

A plastic brand audit is a citizen science initiative, co-ordinated globally since 2018 by #BreakFreeFromPlastic. The aim is to convince the world’s top polluters to stop producing so much unnecessary single use plastic. In order to know who those are, we record data on branded plastic waste in our community. 

Community training events and surveys

Strandliners offered a series of community training events on plastic pollution identification, surveying and sewage-related debris through the Clean Seas Please project. The three sessions were timed to take place before a survey so volunteers could put their new skills into practice.

Saturday 26th March, Bexhill
De La Warr Pavilion
This was a Clean Seas Please event with a survey for the Marine Conservation Society. Nearly 250 items were collected, of which 63% were plastic. Thank you to all who volunteered on this lovely sunny day.

Saturday 26th February, Bexhill
Galley Hill
This was a Clean Seas Please event with a survey for the Marine Conservation Society. Almost 300 pieces of mismanaged waste were collected, 82% of which were plastic. Thank you to all who took part.

Sunday 23rd January, Bexhill
Beaulieu Beach
This was a Clean Seas Please event with a survey for the Marine Conservation Society. The beach may have looked clean, but almost 400 pieces were collected and identified, 92% of which were plastic. Thank you to all who took part.

Sunday 6th February, River Rother
A new event for us, this was a ‘Source to Sea’ survey for the Marine Conservation Society.

Sunday 13th February, River Rother
A new event for us, this was a ‘Source to Sea’ survey for the Marine Conservation Society.

The data gained from these surveys helps to lobby for change.

Members’ Beachcombing walk

This was for our members who missed the opportunity to take part in the November walk. We enjoyed a glorious sunny day, with sightings of fulmar, ravens, piddocks, bivalve fossils and dinosaur footprints!

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2021

The Great Nurdle Hunt 2021

October was Nurdle month! ‘What is a nurdle?’, you may ask. Everything made of plastic was once a nurdle. They are around 5mm in size and shaped like a lentil. These nurdles are manufactured near the oil extraction site and transported around the world by ship, lorry and train. Unfortunately they are also lost in transit by the billion! There are some U.K, nurdle and microplastic events in October and Strandliners has events at Camber Sands, River Cuckmere and the River Rother looking for them and counting. All these surveys will give us a better picture of where they are, and in what quantity. We may even find some bio-beads, and that is another story!

The Great Nurdle Hunt takes place from 1st to 31st October this year. Strandliners held three events during October.

At Camber, we found:
1,350+ bio-beads & 450 nurdles in the sand, in old and new Strandliners.
They are present all along the shoreline, deposited by the sea and blown by the wind, washed in and out depending on tides.

At the River Rother, in Rye, we found:
194 bio-beads, 56 nurdles
in grass and earth on the salt marsh, grazed areas and the riverbank strandline.

At the River Cuckmere, we found:
~5,500 bio-beads & 1,500 nurdles
on old strandlines and saltmarsh riverbank strandline.
Many more were present but a specific survey was used to compare the ratio between nurdles and bio-beads.

Great British Beach Clean
18th – 26th September 2021

Strandliners held five events for the annual Marine Conservation Society ‘Great British Beach Clean’ in September. Click here to see the results.

The Clean Earth Show
19th September 2021

Strandliners and Clean Seas had a stand at this event, and our CEO, Andy, gave a well-received talk on ‘Adding value to beach cleans and litter picks’. It was great to have the opportunity to talk to new people and tell them about the work of Strandliners.

Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat Open Day
29th August 2021

Brilliant day at the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat Open Day with lovely people, and all for a very important cause. Strandliners Environmental Champions invited people to look at the microplastic mess collected from our East Sussex coastline, and offered their unique awareness gifts. Thank you to everyone we were able to chat with.

Some of our previous events are listed below… Please make sure you have signed up for our regular news sheets so we can keep you updated. Sign up here.

Some of our other events can be seen below.