TJ provides free skips for beach cleans

2019 has seen TJ form a partnership with local non-profit Community Interest Company The Final Straw Solent, whose work revolves around highlighting the impact of plastic pollution on our environment, local seas and wider oceans.

TJ feel strongly about this issue and support efforts to improve the situation however they can. This year TJ has provided waste management services for two beach cleans at Eastney beach, Portsmouth, organised by The Final Straw Solent.

They organise regular clean-up events and rely on members of the public to volunteer as well as community groups and businesses. This year they have organised over a dozen events around the solent region. The beaches that benefitted included Eastney, Tipner, Hayling Island, West Witterings, Lee-on-Solent and Western Shore at Royal Victoria Country Park, as well as Emsworth Mill Pond.

The Final Straw are extremely grateful to all the volunteers who turn up to help and make the clean ups possible. Usually between 20 and 50 turn up to help, but one event saw around 150 helpers attend! At least 20-30 bags are filled with litter at each event, much of which is plastic bottles, cans and food packaging. At one of the events, the team dealt with items that had been abandoned on the beach including a trailer, car tyres and even a boat!

TJ provided a 17-yard roll-on-roll-off skip on both occasions to provide a place for all the waste collected. Once the beach clean was complete, TJ removed the skip and took it back to their materials recovery facility in Tipner. All the waste was thoroughly sorted with everything that could possibly be recycled being extracted and separated.

Lissie Pollard from The Final Straw Solent said:

“We really need people to change their attitude to littering. A lot of the rubbish picked up on the beach cleans  is stuff that could so easily be taken home or put in a bin, but sadly lots of people just drop it out of their cars or leave it where they’ve been sitting.”

The Final Straw Solent has a big metal fish structure – called Nellie – that acts as a recycling bin for plastic bottles and is positioned in various places around the county, usually to encourage recycling during events. When Nellie was recently in Winchester city centre and full of waste, TJ stepped in and emptied her for free after others refused to help.

The Final Straw Solent were established in Emsworth in 2018. They started as a group of volunteers giving their time to help clean up local community spaces and, in time, the surrounding areas. They originally focussed on encouraging businesses to cut back on the amount of disposable, pointless plastic they used as well as running beach cleans and talking to local communities in the Solent area.

The company has really grown since its inception and they now work with many different types of business on sustainability and helping them find ethical and sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic in their activities. They have a busy school outreach programme and have reached thousands of children in the Solent area through assemblies and workshops. They also work with community groups, giving talks and running activities and encouraging people to avoid single-use plastic and how to best dispose of it if they do need to use it.

TJ General Manager Luke Haskell said:

“We’re always happy to help this extremely worthy cause. We all need to pull together to do all we can to reduce waste – particularly plastic – entering our oceans as it has detrimental effects on marine life. It would be great if people could be more mindful about littering as it’s vital to look after the environment we live in. TJ is a strong supporter of The Final Straw and we think the work they and all the volunteers do is fantastic.”

Lissie added:

“TJ have been an incredible supporter to our campaign and have been fantastic at dealing with our – often last minute! – requests for help! It’s great to know that we have them on our side trying to help clean up our local areas and they have really pulled out all the stops to give us a hand whenever they can – thanks guys!”