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One of the most iconic images of Britain is summer holiday by the seaside, with the family building sandcastles, eating ice-cream. Paddling in rock pools and walking along the promenade – and the British seaside is still a favourite destination for thousands of people every summer. But in addition to starfish and seashells, often less pleasant things can be found on the beach. Empty drinks bottles, crisp packets and other rubbish that accumulates from a variety of sources isn’t just unpleasant and dangerous for human visitors; it can have a hugely detrimental effect on wildlife.

As part of the Wembury Bioblitz, which took place in August in Plymouth, UK, volunteers from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers conducted a beach clean – and once the rubbish had been sorted and washed, we took it back to the Natural History Museum to find out where it came from, and what effect it could have on wildlife.

The rubbish was sorted into different categories – metal, wood and natural products and plastic. By far the most rubbish was plastic, and most of this was from food waste – where the wrappings and packaging from picnics on the beach have ended up in the water and floating around the marine environment. A plastic bottle can remain around 450 years, and an aluminium drinks can from 200 to 500 years!

So what can this do to wildlife? Well, firstly marine life can get entangled in it, and over 135 species of marine invertebrates have been found enmeshed in some way. They can also ingest or eat it, mistaking it for food or eating another organism that has eaten plastic. Tragically, sometimes birds feed it to their chicks thinking its food, and they can subsequently die, choked on the plastic rubbish. Yet another effect is poisoning, with the chemicals the various materials release as they break down proving toxic.

Looking at the packaging closer, although most of it came from the UK, some of it has floated here from further afield, with bottles from both the Mediterranean and the possibly the Baltic present in the rubbish picked up.

So what can you do to help? Well, you can reduce the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfill by ensuring you recycle as much as possible, and if you want to help clean up your beaches, then there are lots of organised beach cleans that you can join in with.

And finally, if you want to keep your beach clean, and other beaches across Europe and the world, then when you visit the seaside take home everything with you; ‘Take only pictures, leave only footprints’