The Deans Volunteers
Gather Rubbish and Bag it!
The Blog
Thoughts, musings, and ruminations.
April 24, 2018A new tip every week Bread: Buy from a baker and take a paper/cloth bag with you to store it in. If you're life is one supermarket shop per week then your bread might come in a plastic bag, if you're up to unwrapping it in store or at the check out, leave the plastics behind, this is a really...What We Do
At GRAB ( Gather Rubbish & Bag it!) we hope to influence our local & wider community to recycle, reduce and reuse. To educate and encourage all of our members to take part in beach cleaning whether it be on an individual or a bigger scale.
To teach our members through Facebook, on our website, on twitter & Instagram or at our events just how much litter is in our oceans and how it destroys the marine environment. We work with individuals and groups big and small to support those wanting to live a single use plastic free (SUPF) lifestyle through free workshops, one2one or in small groups.
Lifestyle tips
Every week we will add a new tip for you to try at home
- Vegetables, Cheese & Meat: cut down on meat/cheese & vegetables wrapped in plastic, buy loose from farm shops and grocers, buy local.
- Bread: buy from a baker and take a paper/ cloth bag with you to store it in.
- Shampoo the question is do you go for a shampoo bar or refill bottles. If you live near a refill service then refill is the obvious choice, however if you don't then a shampoo bar is the way to go. They are easy to use and store, say good bye to bottles lining your shower/bathroom shelf/cabinet. Lots of people complain that the bar can leave hair limp/with residue; if this is the case use an ACV rinse (apple cider vinegar) just pour a glug (very scientific!) of cider vinegar into a jug add warm water and rinse your hair, you can add you favourite essential oil for aroma, peppermint is my fav.
- Soap look for soap that is completely unwrapped, then pop it in your underwear draws to harden before use; we promise it will last you much longer!
Plastics Spiralling Out of Control
A community art installation
This project hopes to develop narrative and plant ideas. Plastics are disliked by all of us when picked up...but once in the bag, just like at home in your kitchen bin they are forgotten, this community art installation show us all what we are collecting en mass and allows the whole beach commiunity to experience the plastics that the whole group has seen.
Teaching on the beach
Education is key
Where ever we can, we teach about why we pick up beach debris, we teach about the marine environment we are protecting. we work directly on the beach at every event, but we also work in partnership with schools and groups.
Beach cleanup events
This is what its all about
We clean local beaches on a regular basis, we run Marine conservation beach watch beach cleans https://www.mcsuk.org and support Surfers against sewage beach cleans https://www.sas.org.uk. and Keep Britain tidy events https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/
2021 beach cleans
- 04 July Saltdean
- 01 Aug Ovingdean
- 05 Sept Rottingdean
- 03 Oct Saltdean
- 07 Nov Ovingdean
- 05 Dec Rottingdean
- 02 Jan Saltdean
From humble beginnings
How five became hundreds
Cleaning local beaches on a regular basis with friends and family, I needed to share all my passion for keeping our marine conservation zone safe and clean for future generations became apparent. Social media played a massive part in this. Our beach cleans and volunteer support grew from just a few to upto 150 at a beach clean. Every time we hold an event we attract 20-30 volunteers, depending on so many environmental issues...the weather plays a huge part in this!
After 6 years of cleaning beaches I worked out that we have recovered approx 6 tonnes of litter. That’s given use something to celebrate!
Beach cleaning festival May 6th 2018
A celebration for all
THE ORDER OF THE DAY -
10.00 - Unite The Beat will greet you at the slip road and offer a short 5 minute workshop and invite you to join them in a procession to the beach
10.00 Natural History Museum seaweed survey - low tide 09.52am
10.30 - Yoga frogs will start some yoga sessions for our younger volunteers.
11.00- Marine Conservation SocietyBeach watch beach clean welcome.
- Teach on the beach table
-Silent Disco equipping11.00- Artpod on the beach, mosaics and larger object des art!
11.30 - Come and make a memory jar with our lovely Alex Rickman.
11.30 - Amanda Davidson invites us to join in Rottingdean cave art project launch.
12.30-1.30- 5 rhythms silent disco experimental dance class12.30-13.00 - plastic spiralling out of control
12.30-Plastic free lifestyle workshop
13.00-Scouts to recycle.
1.30- picnic lunch please bring your own or buy from our local cafés.
2.00 - Rockingdean Studio will offer some drumming workshops.
2.30- Chanting & meditation with Diana Sampson
3.00-Luna yoga
4.00 Close
Become a beach Guardian or Cliff top Keeper 2018
Supporting your local beach volunteers
This new project wants to inspire our volunteers to become Beach Clean Guardians and lead on beach cleans, create their own events and share the GRAB feelgoodfactor. Our Cliff top keepers will take teams of volunteers up on to the cliff tops and help clean up the wider environment. Drop us a line through Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thedeansvolunteers/ or email us at thedeansvolunteers@gmail.com
Working with Businesses
Beach work and Plastic free team building workshops
Recent work Country Living Magazine UK and Friends of the Earth UK was amazing. We held a bespoke event to give them an insight into what a beach clean and plastic free lifestyles look like. They were all surprised to find the amount of plastic litter they did, they admitted to arriving on our beach and thinking that there was nothing to pick up. After collecting 31kgs of plastic debris and finding out that only 4 kgs can be recycled they all took an important message away with them, single use plastics have to be reduced.
https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a22753048/country-living-beach-clean/
Drop us a line through Facebook if you are interested in a team building workshop.
https://www.facebook.com/thedeansvolunteers/ or email us at thedeansvolunteers@gmail.com
Who We Are
We are a local group reaching out to our community and beyond
Libby Darling
Lead Volunteer
Libby is passionate about protecting the local marine environment and is a plastic free lifestyle campaigner.
Boyd
Chief Hug Officer
Boyd is the number one go to man for support at every beach clean.
Michael
The Lightwhisperer
Michael is our event photographer and no-one has ever seen an image of him!
Ol
Junior Marine Conservation Society Sea Champion
Ol is always great at helping out and his marine knowledge is awesome.
Rona
Beach Buddy
Rona if a real support to GRAB and great fun informative and our PR Queen to work with. Please support her beach cleans!
Russ
Beach buddy
Russ if a great person to have on the beach, he's always calm, helpful and great fun to work with. Please support his beach cleans!
Who's Talking About Us
Take a look and enjoy!
You + Social Media = Social Impact
You're awesome. Let's talk.
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/thedeansvolunteers/
Twitter
@
Dean_beach Email
thedeansvolunteers.gmail.com
© 2021