Red Funnel teams up with Planet Aware for Island beach cleaning

Ahead of this year’s Earth Day, Saturday, 22 April, Red Funnel staff members joined forces with volunteers of the Isle of Wight based environmental community group, Planet Aware to partake in a beach cleaning afternoon at Binnel Bay in St Lawrence.

The volunteers collected 67kg of rubbish which included scores of plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, fishing tackle line and ropes, disposable face covers, tyres, kids’ toys, shoes,  and shotgun shells.
Sarah Marshall, Coastal Community Volunteer and Chair at Planet Aware, said: “Beach cleaning is a great way to see your local coast all while doing something to help keep it beautiful. It offers a sense of personal wellbeing through offering a service to the local community, meeting new people and enjoying being outdoors. Events like this also help to remind us how our resource use and waste impacts our oceans and prompts us to think about creating changes in our day to day lives.”

Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel, said: “We’re committed to finding innovative ways to reduce and mitigate all aspects of our environmental impact, and to protect the environment and biodiversity within the places we operate. Our colleagues thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the beach clean, and it’s something we’re excited to take even further, with plans in place to pledge more staff to support Planet Aware with all their upcoming beach cleans this year.

Red Funnel recently announced their new ESG strategy, Changing Tides. The plan charts Red Funnel’s course to net zero and offers a framework to achieve real and measurable results in terms of making a positive impact on the environment and the Island community.

Planet Aware is a community group with a mission to reduce coastal and marine pollution on the Isle of Wight. The group seeks to raise awareness of the importance of the ocean in people’s everyday lives, as it is a food and oxygen source, as well as a vital carbon sink. The group seeks to explore and enable changes that people can easily adopt to protect the oceans for future generations.  

Anyone interested in learning more about Planet Aware or wishes to get involved in future beach clean events should register their interest with Planet Aware at: https://www.planetaware.co.uk/beach-cleaning-hub