Recently Woody and I attending a dog friendly beach clean with Cornish Creatives. We descended on Perranporth beach to clear up any nasty plastic at low tide. Plenty of dogs came along too, including some of Woody’s favourite friends. They all enjoyed playing together while we cleaned the beach.
DOGSCLOSURE: One Bag Beach Clean gifted us the tote featured in this post. It’s a great initiative, which I explain more about in the main post!
Cornish Creatives are a community of freelancers and business owners across the Duchy. I joined the group when I moved back to Cornwall in 2017 and it’s been a great way to meet fellow creatives. I absolutely love working from home, however it can get lonely from time to time. It’s great to get out of the house and meet other likeminded creatives every so often.
We were near enough an equal split between humans and hounds. It was great to catch up with Pepper the Frenchie, along with her owner Anna who runs The Cornish Life. The gang from Ruff Seas were also there, with Leo and Ralph and Woody and I finally got to meet Reggie the cocker spaniel and his owner Charlotte. Spoiler Alert: Reggie is just as cute in real life! I’d also invited Maddie and Alex along from Madeleine Olivia, as they’d recently moved back to Cornwall. I thought a beach clean would be right up their street.
Cornish Creatives is predominantly a Facebook group. There are meet-ups every month or so and we take part in a different activity each time. I’d suggested the dog friendly beach clean, as Woody’s separation anxiety (AD: I was paid to write this post) means I’m sometimes unable to attend the meet-ups. The activities are really varied too, there have been rock climbing, ceramic painting and coffee shop meet ups so far!
A dog friendly beach clean was the ideal opportunity to test out my new tote bag (gifted.) One Bag Beach Clean is a new initiative, encouraging individuals to pick up a bags worth of plastic every time they visit the beach. It’s shocking how easy it is to fill a bag up with fishing line, ropes, coffee cups and general waste. I thought it would be a challenge but sadly it’s often anything but…
The bags are made from organic cotton and cost £2, half of which is donated to Clean Ocean Sailing, another Cornish initiative based in Gweek. You can email Carol, the founder of One Bag Beach Clean if you’re interested in finding out more about her incredible work. Of course, you don’t need the branded, organic cotton bag to complete a beach clean, anything will do. I’m often out collecting micro plastics in poo bags when I accidentally leave my tote at home!
We cleaned the beach for a couple of hours, though there was definitely a lot of chatting going on too. The weather was very intermittent. After one too many rain showers, we decided to call it a day. We gathered the dogs (some were more willing to come back than others… I’m looking at you Woody!) and headed towards the car park. We disposed of our findings properly in the nearby general waste bins.
We’d collected far more than I ever thought we would. I’ve always considered Perranporth a ‘clean’ beach, however our overflowing bags would suggest otherwise! It just goes to show how easy it is to overlook the cleanliness of our beaches. Among our treasure trove of plastics we’d found half a rug (why that was on the beach in the first place, I’ll never know!), plenty of fishing line, microplastics, a paint roller (for rolling the sand flat maybe?!) and plenty of polystyrene.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve found washed up by the tide? Would you like to join us for a dog friendly beach clean in Cornwall? It’s something I’d love to organise, so let us know what you think!
To keep up to date with our adventures, follow us on Instagram!