Hi John,
‘Tis the season to get outdoors with loved ones and stand up for the places we love. 🌊 This month, we’ve packed your newsletter with ways to take action, stay informed, and feel inspired over the festive break.
Dive into:
👀 A taste of what’s to come with next year’s elections in Scotland & Wales
🌊 An update on the bio-beads scandal and how you can help
💪 A fun and impactful way to protect the outdoors this holiday season
🎥 A short but epic film that’ll get you fired up for those festive dips!
Upcoming elections in Scotland & Wales
The 2026 Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd elections are a BIG opportunity to demand real action on sewage and plastic pollution. Our coasts, rivers and lochs should be safe places for people and wildlife alike - but right now, they’re under threat.
We’ve worked with communities and grassroots orgs in these nations to create bespoke manifestos for Scotland and Wales that outline bold solutions for protecting wild waters, holding polluters accountable, and cutting plastic pollution.
If you’re based in Scotland or Wales, these are valuable tools you can use to start conversations with candidates, hold politicians accountable, and mobilise your communities ahead of the elections.
An update on the bio-beads scandal
This year, millions of tiny plastic bio‑beads have washed up on the South East coastline, from Camber Sands to Rye Harbour. We also saw spills of plastic discs in South Wales. Local volunteers have been tirelessly clearing them in efforts to prevent more devastation to our environment and wildlife.
But this isn’t new. Communities across the UK have been documenting and cleaning up bio‑bead pollution for decades. And it's local people who are almost always the first to spot the pollution, raise the alarm, and clean it up - rather than the companies responsible.
Even now, investigations continue. But water companies have been slow to act, with the likes of Southern Water ‘not fully co-operating’ with pollution spill inquiries. Shocker.
👉 Spotted bio‑beads or other bio-media? Fill out our survey!
Your observations are helping us reveal the full scale of the problem, drive accountability and push for systemic change. Please wear gloves when picking up bio-beads or bio-media, as they can carry harmful bacteria. Get outside & make a difference this Christmas
'Tis the season of giving back, so why not take part in a Million Mile Clean this Christmas? Whether you’re by the coast, in the countryside, or on your local streets, plastic pollution is everywhere - and every piece picked up helps us expose the worst polluters.
A huge thank you if you’ve already joined a clean this year! Make sure you’ve logged every action, big or small, so your impact adds to our data collection. Together, we can show the power of collective action for the places we love.
Keep an eye out in the new year for our 2025 wrap-up and get ready for our Spring Cleans - dates coming soon. 🙌
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