PlasticBusters back in action after the circuit break lockdown!

Our PlasticBusters volunteers in the Isle of Man are now back in action after a short “circuit break” lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which we had cancelled our group activities following the Isle of Man Government’s advice to protect our volunteers and the community.

For our first activity this month we paid a visit to the beautiful Summerhill Glen in Douglas (Isle of Man), where we enjoyed a beautiful morning picking up over one hundred and fifty pounds of plastic, cans, glass, and other non-recyclable litter along Victoria Road and the Glen, a popular beauty spot filled with streams and footpaths to explore and a vast array of flora and fauna.

The team spent quite some effort cleaning the river, where we found a very old (1940s?) car wheel, several road cones & emergency lights, as well as large quantities of single-use plastics. We had read the sad news back in September 2020 (article here) that pollution in the Summerhill Glen river had killed more than 140 fish, so we were keen to ensure we would do our best to collect all possible litter.

It felt so well to be back in action after over a month without team activities, and to connect again with our volunteers!.

With this we have now carried out 24 group clean-up activities in the Isle of Man to preserve the ecosystems of this unique UNESCO Biosphere nation, where we have so far collected over 3,500 pounds of litter. And this is only counting our organised group activities, as many of our PlasticBusters continue working hard on their own.

Thanks so much to all volunteers, we can’t wait for our next activity…

Would you like to volunteer with us? Please join here our Facebook page.

Note: All materials collected in our activities are properly separated, logged, and taken to the nearby amenity site for disposal/recycling or handed over for collection to the local council. In this case, the Douglas Borough Council kindly collected all the litter at the agreed collection point.