{"id":131363,"date":"2025-11-12T15:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T15:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131363\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T15:41:16","slug":"plastic-still-makes-up-majority-of-nis-beach-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131363\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic still makes up majority of NI’s beach waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louise CullenAgriculture and environment correspondent, BBC News NI<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The amount of plastic waste on Northern Ireland’s beaches has fallen, but it still accounts for 84% of the litter found, new figures show.<\/p>\n

The latest Marine Litter Report<\/a> from Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful (KNIB) recorded an average of 341 items of litter per 100m of beach in 2024.<\/p>\n

The chief executive of KNIB, Eric Randle, said the report highlighted the need to “keep pushing forward” on reducing litter.<\/p>\n

Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir said “everyone has a role to play” in tackling the “persistent problem” of litter.<\/p>\n

What litter was found on NI beaches?<\/p>\n

\"KNIBKNIB<\/p>\n

Ardglass is one of many beaches in Northern Ireland where plastic waste accounts for more than 80% of litter found<\/p>\n

A total of 17,575 items of litter were recorded across the 12 beaches surveyed in Northern Ireland in 2024.<\/p>\n

A significant amount of drink-related litter also made the “terrible 10” list of the most observed items.<\/p>\n

Plastic and polystyrene fragments sized under 2.5cm topped the list, followed by tangled fishing nets, rope, string, and cord with a diameter of less than 1cm.<\/p>\n

Under Northern Ireland’s Environmental Improvement Plan, an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme will be phased in from 2025, as part of UK-wide plans to tackle waste from packaging.<\/p>\n

A Deposit Return Scheme, returning a small deposit on single use drinks containers to consumers, is scheduled for UK implementation in October 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How is waste counted?<\/p>\n

The Marine Litter Report has been carried out annually since 2012, using the OSPAR Commission’s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It brings together 15 governments and the European Union to protect the North East Atlantic marine environment.<\/p>\n

More than 70 beaches are monitored in each of the four seasons, during defined survey periods.<\/p>\n

In Northern Ireland, samples are taken from 12 beaches.<\/p>\n

Each beach is cleaned within two weeks of the survey to ensure the amount of marine litter is not being duplicated.<\/p>\n

The results from each survey are added to a central database.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louise CullenAgriculture and environment correspondent, BBC News NI Getty Images The amount of plastic waste on Northern Ireland’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-131363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}