A NEW scheme has been launched to try and record the tons of plastic removed from Scotland's beaches by hundreds of 'anonymous' cleaners.

Scientists say that projections now show that local beaches face up to 20ft of plastic by 2050 if no action is taken.

But the work of public-spirited conservationists - providing an 'invaluable service to society' - is not being logged and taken into account in future pollution modelling, says clean-up group Plastic@Bay.

It wants the anonymous litter pickers outraged by the plastic scourge to become 'citizen scientists' by recording their garbage and downloading the data after their clean-up.

"We want to give voice to the anonymous beach cleaners that achieve incommensurable efforts to protect our coastline. We observe and meet people that are beach cleaning their little area, the place they go to relax, the spot they get the dog out," said Geophysicist Dr Julien Moreau of Plastic@Bay, which is based at Durness in Sutherland.

"In our remote corner, there could be people that do that everyday. They pick-up something and then put it in the bin. All together that?s hundreds of kilos, sometimes tons of beach pollution that is removed - in particular in winter when no tourist is around.

"The foremost idea is that, what we call the 'anonymous beach cleaner', is providing an invaluable service to the society.

"Without asking anything or minding, she/he will be doing their job silently and regularly. Beyond the obvious good, you have an unpleasant feeling. The fact is people are mending issues generated by other people, often professional activities, on their own time and money and all this totally anonymously.

"By doing so, the problem is hidden from sight, those responsible for the problem do not face it and finally the people in power are not obliged to take action to solve the root of the problem. Because pollution is rocketing, we have simulated the scenarios of not taking action in our local beaches and that means 5-20t of plastic by 2050 on every single one.

“To avoid this worst case scenario, we would like to offer a free tool that beach cleaners can use to record their data. This new portal is accessible through the new research page.

“We have noticed that when discussing with authorities or other environmental groups, facing numbers avoid dodging the real issues.

“If we have a tool where it is easy to upload and visualise data we could make a difference. The idea is to base the recordings on the beach - meaning a continuous and regular bit of coastline - without excessive useless precision, the date it was collected and the weight of pollution recovered.”

A form after a beach clean, “takes less than a minute” and can be done by phone. It gets recorded in the database.

“You also have options to upload multiple beach cleans by sending us the spreadsheets you can download on the submission page. On the same page, you can also download spreadsheets to register a new beach or register a new team and its members,” said Dr Moreau.

“We have already compiled several datasets from groups and the results are quite impressive, big shout-out at Caithness Beach Cleans and Kik Plastic! We have had promises of much more dataset even outside the UK. Already the graphics are absolutely staggering.

“We believe that if we can show what each group is doing, people will be more aware of the scale of the problem. All these data are accessible from anywhere and could be integrated into your website easily. You can, for example, filter the data to show only your team or the beaches you like, change the colours, templates, map projection etc. The database is meant to be used and shared, we just try to make it working and friendly to use. Our database is regularly backed up so it also provides safety to your data.

“We hope we will receive lots of submission and we can show what the ‘anonymous’ beach cleaners are doing to make our places safer and more beautiful. Thanks for what you do.”

Dr Moreau added:”We believe that regularly measuring the weight of plastic coming on our coast has a huge potential to inform us about ocean pollution.”

Campaigners clearing tons of plastic from the Far North’s beaches were awarded ö5,000 for a unique marine recycling centre - believed to be the first of its type in Scotland.

Thanks to the money from SSE’s Sustainable Development Fund the Marine Plastic Recycling Centre is based in Durness - mainland Britain’s most north westerly village.

Marine plastic pollution washed up on local beaches is recycled into useful objects for resale, such as clocks - and even as face shields in the pandemic.

To upload data go to https://www.plasticatbay.org/research/?v=79cba1185463

Only registered beaches and teams will be displayed.