Drugs, flip-flops and a fridge: global beach clean led by Irish group collects varied haul

Over 10 tonnes of waste, including drugs, flip-flops and a fridge, were collected during a global beach clean-up organized by an Irish environmentalist named Flossie Donnelly. The effort, known as the Global Big Weigh In, saw volunteers from 30 countries participate in a single day of cleanup activities, logging their findings to assess the scale of ocean pollution. The event, which took place last week, highlighted the diverse nature of litter found along coastlines and waterways worldwide. The campaign was initiated by Flossie Donnelly, a 19-year-old who has been organizing beach clean-ups near her home in south Dublin since childhood. This time, she collaborated with environmental charities and community groups across continents, including Europe, Asia, Africa, the United States and New Zealand. Participants were asked to conduct one cleanup session on a local beach or river and record the amount of trash they removed. The total weight of collected waste reached 10,434 kilograms, encompassing a wide range of discarded materials that pose environmental threats. Among the largest contributions came from the Citarum River in Indonesia, where Flossie and her mother, Harriet Donnelly, have worked to establish local action groups. The environmental organization Equator ID played a key role there, removing over 5,000 kilograms of litter, including thousands of disposable nappies. On the nearby island of Gili Trawangan, volunteers collected 6,000 cigarette butts within just one hour, underscoring the impact of smoking-related waste in tourist areas. In Mumbai, India, flip-flops were among the most common items retrieved, while in North Macedonia, a fridge was among the unusual items found. Other notable finds included an echo sounder discovered by a solo cleaner in Denmark, an object that once served a functional purpose in the sea but had become lost. In the Netherlands, clean-up teams encountered numerous packages of drugs, highlighting the presence of illicit substances in coastal environments. Common items such as plastic bottles, bags, containers, clothing, personal belongings, fishing gear, ropes, wires, bottle caps, cans, and fragments of unknown origin were also frequently recovered. Ireland contributed significantly to the effort, with fourteen groups participating, including a team from Connemara who collected nearly a tonne of waste. Flossie Donnelly, currently on summer break after completing her first year of studying marine biology at a university in Britain, continues to lead the Flossie and The Beach Cleaners charity she founded. This marks the second major global beach clean-up, following a similar event last year involving participants from twenty countries. Harriet Donnelly expressed satisfaction with the expansion of the initiative, noting that many of the groups involved lack substantial funding or extensive social media presence. Instead, they are motivated by a deep commitment to preserving their local environments. “What inspires me most is that so many of these groups are driven purely by passion,” she remarked. Flossie Donnelly emphasized the importance of shifting priorities toward planetary health rather than short-term profits. She hopes the clean-up will encourage more individuals, organizations, and world leaders to take meaningful steps toward sustainability. “We already know what needs to be done, now we need the courage and determination to do it,” she stated.