The UK’s leading marine charity is looking for volunteers to get on board with Britain's biggest beach clean event.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is hoping the Great British Beach Clean, running from September 15 - 18, isn’t just a good day out for people who love the coast.

The event is the only UK-wide beach clean that not only spruces up hundreds of beaches around the coast but records litter finds too.

In 2016, 268,384 individual pieces of litter were picked up by just under 6,000 volunteers who cleaned up over 360 beaches.

Beach cleans take place from Cornwall to Cumbria, Denbighshire to Devon, Hampshire to the Highlands and all places in between. It incorporates the Great Channel Islands Beach Clean and the Great Northern Irish Beach clean.

This year, the Great British Beach Clean in England is being sponsored by Waitrose who are supporting MCS’ year round beach clean programme.

Between now and next June, MCS aims to organise 1,000 beach and river clean ups for people to participate in.

Beach litter has steadily risen over the 23 years since MCS began recording it. However, there was some good news last year because the number of single-use plastic bags found on UK beaches almost halved between 2015 and 2016. MCS says this was almost certainly due to the charges at the checkout and shows the impact that behaviour change can have on beach litter.

In 2016 tiny bits of plastic and polystyrene were the most frequently found litter items on UK beaches. But although fewer plastic bags were found, there was a shocking 50 per cemt rise in the amount of balloon related litter compared to the previous year and volunteer pickers found more drinks container caps and lids too – up 4 per cent on 2015.

Lizzie Prior, MCS Beach and River Clean Project Officer said: “Taking part in the Great British Beach Clean really can make a difference. In previous years when we’ve highlighted increases in dog poo bags and sewage related debris found on beaches we’ve seen drops in numbers subsequently.

“Plastic drinks bottles have consistently been in the Top 10 of items found on beaches and that’s why we’re pushing for deposit return schemes in all parts of the UK.”

Cleaning and surveying a beach only takes a couple of hours at most. Each beach has a coordinator, who explains how to fill in a simple data form, and then it’s just a case of grabbing a litter picker and a bin bag and filling it up with rubbish.

Sign up to a clean near you at www.mcsuk.org/waitrose or call 01989 566017.