Tarka Trail & Estuary Clean Up Success on World Clean Up Day 2024

What a success! Local businesses, organisations and members of the public joined us in our World Clean Up Day event.  

With the aim of World Clean Up Day being to activate 5% of the world's population to catalyse lasting societal change in behaviour around mismanaged waste, we targeted businesses and local organisational partners along the Tarka Trail to join us in a mass clean of the trail and estuary from Chivenor to Bideford. 

With funding and support from Coastal Recycling and Saltrock to run this event as well as securing additional logistical support from North Devon Council and Torridge District Council, we were able to help activate and organise cleans at 12 different locations  and along this route.

100 volunteers from 12 local businesses and organisations collected 650 kilos of rubbish along 10.6 miles of the Tarka Trail. Each group collected bags of debris from the estuary and trail including some usual finds: 3 crocs (the shoe variety), a bike wheel, a car stereo, make up and a garden fork to name but a few. With the most common finds being plastic bottles,drinks cans and fishing related debris

Claire Moodie, PFND CEO says 

“Our first mass clean up on World Clean Up Day saw 100 volunteers helping to clear away debris and plastics from not only one of the most ecologically important areas in our region, but a place where locals and visitors enjoy too.We loved  the logistical challenge of bringing multiple businesses, organisations and individuals together to take action in the area we love alongside millions of others across the globe on the same day. It was great to see our North Devon MP Ian Roome and some of our local councillors getting stuck in too. We hope to build on this pilot project ready for next year's event where we hope we can get even more people activated to help protect and improve our local environment.”

Saltrock sponsored the clean and also sent a team of members along to help with the clean up. Kate Ross-Smith Marketing Manager, Saltrock says: 

“Myself and members of the Saltrock team took part in the clean on World Clean Up Day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We believe in supporting community initiatives and our teams being involved where they can. Many of our customers come here on holiday and use the Tarka Trail around this stretch of estuary, so it’s important to support and sponsor this larger community clean- up and protect the wildlife and nature of the Tarka Trail environment. Plastic Free North Devon is a crucial organisation and plays a key role in the sustainability, protection and flourishing of it’.

As well as financially supporting the clean up, a Coastal Recycling team went along to the cleans and also organised the waste collection along the trail too. 

Emily Delve, Commercial Director Coastal Recycling States: 

“This clean-up of the Tarka Trail took direct action in and around the communities we work in, and with waste collection being our area of expertise, we just knew we had to get involved and support the event. It was amazing to see what our team gathered from what looked like a relatively clean part of the estuary. We collected everything from fishing tackle, broken plastics to bags of dog poo and had bags and bags of rubbish, all collected in just a couple of hours.”

We would like to extend our thanks to all the businesses and organisations who came out to support this initiative. Saltrock, Coastal Recycling, SEA, Boden Group, North Devon National Landscapes, Braunton Countryside Centre, Brends Hotels, Eden Sustainable, The Pickwell Foundation, dryrobe®, Instow Yacht Club, Braunton Countryside Centre and Home Farm Marsh. All of these businesses and organisations helped in making this event a success.

Kate Ross-Smith, Saltrock Marketing Manager says about taking part in the clean up;

It was important for us to take part and see how clean the Tarka Trail really is, and on the surface it looks clean but we found a different story below. We spent quite a bit of time down on the estuary near North Devon Yacht Club and the historic Lime Kiln. We found a lot of rubbish: cans, plastic, broken glass and even a car seat! We know this is area is used by wildlife and dogs and it was a real eye opener and worrying that it could continue to get worse if nothing is done. That’s why it’s crucial to support and take part in community clean ups, even little and often would help.”

Our next large scale clean up, which directly calls on local businesses and organisations to support is our Day of Action on 25th January 2025.

To register your interest in getting involved, please get in touch with info@plasticfreenorthdevon.org



Community CleansHannah Clarke