Lightning Fibre Supports a Plastic Free Eastbourne!

On Friday the 23rd March Lightning Fibre is proud to be taking part in Plastic Free Eastbourne’s beach clean initiative down on Eastbourne’s beautiful seafront. Plastic is a major environmental concern and has been blighted our seaside for many years. Current estimates show that at last 8 million pieces of plastic are entering the oceans every single day! A lot of this plastic then ends up on our lovely Sussex beaches.

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Litter is being left on the beach or washed down rivers and drains in towns and cities. It comes from industry spills, badly managed landfill sites and bins near the coast or by being flushed down the toilet. This land-based pollution accounts for two-thirds of pollution. The rest comes from sea-going vessels in the form of containers going overboard or lost fishing gear, as well as toilets and litter.

1 in 3 fish caught now contains plastic. There is no question that we are now consuming plastic, but just how bad for us is that? In seawater plastic absorbs chemicals like PCB’s and DDT’s which have been linked to endocrine disruption and even some cancers. These powerful chemicals become more dangerous as they work their way through the food chain.

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To many people the beach is a place where we can relax and re-connect with nature.It is important to many individuals and families, but it also represents us as a county. It is a part of us as a people and we should be proud to have such beautiful beaches. Some rely on it being clean for their livelihoods. Coastal tourism is worth £5.5 billion to the UK economy every year. 70% of all our oxygen is produced by marine plants, so taking care of the Earth’s seas is important to all of us whether we go to the beach or not!

The current trend of plastic accumulation is unsustainable for the world and in years to come we will be judged on how we behaved today! Lightning Fibre will do it's part in the cleaning of our treasured beaches.

It’s time to fight back!

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