Over the course of 100 separate visits to one small stretch of shoreline at Longniddry Bents, Elizabeth single-handedly collected over 26,500 pieces of marine litter ranging from the familiar to the obscure. As a visual artist, she felt compelled to share the shocking finds and to raise awareness of the problem with the hope of educating and inspiring action against marine litter. 

Elizabeth painstakingly counted, categorised and documented every item collected. Using her visual skills she created eye catching layouts of the plastic debris, morphing litter in to vivid imagery; some images almost pictorial with the objects used to relay a strong environmental message. 

The images shown here are just a snapshot of her collection that is being featured as part of a speaker event – Beach Clean Forum - taking place at the Scottish Seabird Centre on Tuesday 6th October from 6-7pm. An informal evening with a panel of three local women. This is a great opportunity for anyone to find out more about local pollution projects, share experiences and get involved in litter-picks or beach cleans in your local area. Hosted by The Seabird Centre Conservation Officer, Emily, inspirational organisations and individuals will be sharing their experiences of safeguarding marine habitats and protecting wildlife from marine debris. They’ll be chatting about the projects they’re involved in and raising awareness about chemical and plastic pollution in our oceans.

 “I’m so grateful to the Scottish Seabird Centre for coming on board whole heartedly and fully embracing my ‘Longniddry Plastic Pick 100’ project. I look forward to sharing thoughts and views with like-minded people and hopefully discover some answers! Please do come and join us.” Elizabeth

Tickets are free, with an optional donation to charity. Advance booking is essential via Eventbrite.co.uk

If you can’t make it along to the Forum in person, you’ll find more of Lil’s startling imagery and updates on her shoreline adventures on Instagram @lilbeachcomber.

More about Lil and her ‘Longniddry Plastic Pick 100’ Project

Lil (otherwise known as Elizabeth Vischer) is an artist and novice naturalist living in East Lothian. The coast is massively important to her for gathering energy and inspiration for her work as a painter. 

Elizabeth told Lil:

“I have always tried to do a lil’ bit to help clean our beaches and it was while doing this regularly on one stretch of beach that I started to notice an array of familiar objects constantly washing up as well as some more surprising items; old electrical items like cassette recorders covered in barnacles, harping back to historic ocean dumps from the 70’s. Not to mention black bag after black bag of wet wipes and sanitary waste. I was expecting the usual crisp packets and drinks bottles but found an extraordinary amount of single-use plastic – namely plastic cutlery and straws (some 713 pieces accumulated on my picks), novelty plastic toys, razor heads, hair combs and hair ties, plastic gloves and cable ties. How on earth these items have found their way into our seas, beggars belief. I’ve found firework fragments (716 at the last count), BB gun bullets (61 pieces), small micro plastics (pictured and innumerable), dog poo bags and masses of sanitary waste.” 

Elizabeth felt a weight of responsibility to share the project both in the community and educational setting. She has already secured an awareness visit with a local school which she hopes will be the first of many. 

 “Watching sea birds trying to feed amongst the plastic and sanitary waste brought me to tears at times. I am by no means an expert in where the waste is coming from but my hunch is that it is a combination of land-based sources, sewer overflows, fly tipping, angling and trawling debris, historical sea dumping and basic beach and picnic littering. I feel like I’ve literally just scratched the surface of an insurmountable problem; I could litter pick for the rest of my days and it would never stop.” She recalls.

 Lil asked Elizabeth what she had learned from her project:

“Once released into our ocean, litter causes untold problems and plastic never goes away. It just fragments into small particles that never disappear. The plastic debris can absorb toxic chemicals from ocean pollution, poisoning whatever eats it. How can the ocean thrive when it’s being used as a rubbish dump for people? We need to think about the impact on marine life for our future.”

Elizabeth urges others to do their bit.

“My target for this project has been reached but we need to set our global targets way higher. We need to educate people to care, to re-think and take action to protect our precious coasts and seas.”

 80% of marine litter comes from land sources (Eunomia 2016). Much of that is attributable to consumer choices – the products or by-products of items people by every day. It’s why what Lil Vischer does fits so well with our ethos to consider every pound spent is a vote for the world we want.

 Are you inspired to do your LiL bit? Let us know by commenting here, on social media or at hello@dolilthings.org - we’d love to hear from you. Keep updated on organised litter picks via our Facebook page and Instagram feeds.

Image copyright: Lil Vischer.