From nurdles to nappies - KCOM cleans up

Work was rubbish for KCOM’s People Team this week when they took to the shores at Paull, near Hull, to help with a beach clean.

Seventeen volunteers took part in the event on Thursday when they were challenged to help clean a 100m stretch of the rocky Paull beach as part of an initiative working alongside the Marine Conservation Society.

Chief People Officer Kenneth Ross said: “It’s been a brilliant but also an incredibly eye-opening day to learn just how much rubbish we throw away, pump into the sea and pollute our world with.”

As well as making the world a little cleaner, collecting plastic and other discarded litter will also form part of an ongoing survey by the MCS to assess the amount of rubbish being dumped in the sea and washed up on our local beaches.

Data collected by the society is used to advise the Government on policies to help clamp down on plastic and other types of waste escaping into the natural environment.

Among the litter collected on the day were: dozens plastic bottle tops, cotton bud tubes, sweet wrappers, bottles, cans, a plastic chair, bedraggled wet wipes, a nappy and hundreds of mini plastic balls – or nurdles – which are the raw material used by manufacturers to make plastic objects. Described as the “most toxic waste you’ve never heard of” these tiny spheres pollute the sea and eaten by wildlife.

The team even discovered an abandoned foam Baby Yoda among the rocks.

Kenneth added: “I hope the data we helped collect on the small stretch of beach we cleaned will help the Marine Conservation Society to continue its work influencing law makers and those who make decisions about how we dispose of all the waste we create.

“It felt great to be part of a KCOM team working together to help make this small corner of the world a little cleaner and it’s fantastic that, as a company, we enable our people to volunteer and take part in events like this. It’s what being a forward thinking company doing the right thing is all about. As Baby Yoda would day ‘This is the way’.”

* Top find out more about the Marina Conservation Society's work click here