A beach-based information board has been unveiled to help inspire people on the beach to take two minutes to help clear the rubbish from the beaches.

Fran Newman, who organised the unveiling of the Two Minute Beach Clean Board invited Dartmouth Academy primary to come along to Blackpool Sands for the event.

The two minute beach clean stations make it easier for beach goers to pick up marine litter every time they visit the beach. The board encourages visitors to borrow litter pickers and collect as much litter as they can in two minutes and then post their findings on social media to raise awareness and promote cleaner beaches.

Rosie Mears, a teacher from Dartmouth Academy said the children thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Blackpool Sands and it inspired them to think more about our use of plastic.

Last term, Mrs Mears said her class explored the affects of plastic pollution through their Go with the Flow project. The children wrote reports, carried out research tasks and produced some fabulous posters advising people on how to reduce their plastic waste.

Towards the end of the summer term, Mrs Mears said her class will be using plastic rubbish collected from beach cleans to create some artwork to display in the school with the help of local artists Fran Newman and Paul Ross for a project called ‘Seacycle’.

Upon arrival, the beach appeared to be very clean and Fran said this was due to the beach cleaning team working very hard to remove litter. However, she explained that it was tiny pieces of broken down plastic which were causing the most harm to wildlife.

The children set to it with the litter pickers and recycling sacks to collect all they could.

Mrs Mears said: “Thank you to Fran Newman and her family and to Paul Ross for helping to organise this valuable learning experience; we look forward to unveiling our finished art project Seacycle in late July.”