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and beach litter can be toxic and may cause injury
due to jagged edges, broken glass etc. All objects must be handled with
care and entirely at your own risk. The franchisor can bear no responsibility
for any harm to humans or animals caused by items on any ‘A present
from...’ stall or anywhere else on any beach, wheresoever located,
or in the sea.
‘A present from...’ items are unsuitable for children under
14 years, seabirds and all marine animals. Contact with the rubbish
may cause entanglement or strangulation whilst ingestion may lead to poisoning,
starvation and internal injury.
Marine litter has a major impact on wildlife. It is estimated that, globally,
over a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die
every year from entanglement, or ingestion of plastics. Over
177 species are affected. A minke whale that was stranded on a beach in
Normandy was found to have 800g of plastic bags and packaging within its
stomach - including English packaging.
Since 1994, beach litter levels in the UK have increased by over
90% with a current average of around 2000 items per km.
There are four key causes of beach litter: beach visitors (33.9%), fishing
debris (11.2%), sanitary waste (10.4%), and shipping litter (2.0%).
More than 50% of marine litter is plastic. The UN estimates there
are on average 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile of ocean worldwide.
Plastic takes between 450 and 1000 years to degrade at sea, finding its
way into our food chain and environment. Samples of sand from UK beaches
have been examined and found to have up to 10,000 microscopic
plastic fibres per litre of sand.
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