Million Mile Clean

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), now in its 25th year, was in action again today, in Hove, as part of its continuing efforts towards the Million Mile Clean. SAS was founded in 1990 by a group of Cornish surfers concerned about chronic and widespread sewage pollution of the UK coastline. The campaign’s success was helped by key pieces of EU legislation at the time, including the Bathing Water Directive.

Since then SAS has grown into a leading environmental charity, addressing diverse marine conservation issues such as plastic pollution, climate change, and sustainable surfing innovation. Acknowledgement of its growth in importance came in 2020 when Prince Charles became a patron, a role he has maintained since becoming King.

In 2021, SAS came up with the idea of rallying 100,000 volunteers to each clean 10 miles of blue, green or city space a year. Launched in response to the Covid pandemic, the Million Mile Clean subsequently reported it was Europe’s biggest beach clean campaign: 142,428 volunteers in the clean-up efforts; 4,216 beach, river, street, and mountain clean-ups; and 398,179 kg of plastic and packaging pollution cleared across over 1.1 million miles of coast and countryside.

The Million Mile Clean is set to run annually until 2030 (aligning with the UN Decade for Ocean Science), and SAS are continuing to call for people across the UK to join the campaign and commit to cleaning up their local beach or neighbourhood. Details can be found here, and if you want to know whether you can clean by yourself (‘absolutely’), or what to do with the rubbish you’ve collected (recycle if possible), try the FAQs.

It was bitterly cold on the sea front this morning, yet around 30 people turned up, congregating at the Peace Statue, before taking their Surfers Against Sewage waste bags down on to the pebbles.