Conservation volunteers on Stevenston Beach have helped break the nation’s record for keeping litter off the sand.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), a UK charity, has released the results of its most recent Great British Beach Clean, a UK-wide weekend of coastal cleaning.

In Scotland, it was another record-breaking year, with more beach cleans taking place and volunteers getting involved than ever before.

This year 146 beach cleans and litter surveys took place with nearly 3,000 volunteers removing 7,669 kg of litter from the Scottish coastline.

Ian McNab, project officer at Garnock Connections, said: “We were co-hosting the clean-up in Stevenston on September 21.

“We’re involved in a project there to put up new fencing to help develop the sand dunes and improve the habitat.

“So, we decided to do a beach clean there to raise awareness of that work as well as getting people out there to see the site.

“We had about 30 volunteers with us, and a 100m stretch to count everything we picked up which fed into the whole Great British Beach Clean.”

Volunteers on the shore in Stevenston not only cleared the beaches of litter, but became citizen scientists, recording what they found, providing valuable data on what’s polluting beaches.

This data is then used by MCS to campaign for changes to the law, like the 5p carrier bag charge and the ban on plastic cotton bud stems.

According to MCS, Scotland had the second highest litter density in the UK.

An average of 492 litter items per 100 metres was recorded compared to 559 items per100 metres in 2018, representing a 12 per cent decrease in litter levels.

Mr McNab said: “There’s a multitude of benefits: it’s a fantastic habitat for birds and insects and it’s an important site for the people of Stevenston.

“For dog walkers, holidaymakers, to keep it in good nick is good for the wildlife but also encourages people to make use of what is a great space.

“These big organised cleans are great, but unfortunately a lot of this stuff is continuous, it comes back time and again.

“Outwith these events, if people pick up a few things it can make a massive difference.”

For more information visit mcsuk.org.