LOVEmyBEACH – Businesses beach friendly checklist

A selection of businesses who have already signed up (from L-R, Spago in Lytham) Buddha Lounge in Barrow, Finos in Southport and the Merlin group in Blackpool.

There are over 25 dedicated beach clean groups spread across the North West coast volunteering their time to help reduce litter on the beach and in the sea.

Although volunteering their time to help on a beach clean may be a stretch for many people, much can be done within the community to prevent pollution reaching the natural environment in the first place.

That’s why LOVEmyBEACH have developed a beach friendly checklist for business owners, offering advice on how improvements can be made to prevent pollution.

Simple steps such as disposing of kitchen fats in the bin rather than down the sink, putting stickers on your toilets asking people to put disposable products in the bin and not the toilet, or becoming a ReFILL station to cut back on the requirement for single-use water bottles, can all help make a difference.

Kate Shane, Head of Merlin Entertainments’ Blackpool Cluster has recently signed up to be a LOVEmyBEACH business and as a result is promoting the ‘3Ps’ initiative in all of their venues toilet facilities in order to avoid environmentally-damaging items ending up in marine waters or washed up on the beach.

Kate said ‘This is an incredibly important campaign.  When people flush the wrong things down the toilet it significantly increases the risk of sewage and unflushable items leaking into the sea which can cause problems for wildlife and also make people ill if they are swimming or paddling.’

The checklist is a simple A4 sheet which a business owner or manager could complete in less than half an hour. It also includes an employee pledge sheet; encouraging businesses to speak to their teams about the actions which individuals can take at work and at home to protect our coastline.

The business checklist can be found on the LOVEmyBEACH website. The site also contains information about beach clean events across the North West coast for those businesses who want to go the extra mile.

www.lovemybeach.org