Local schoolchildren are helping a Cornish holiday park to step up its war on the scourge of plastic waste polluting Cornwall’s seas and beaches.
Family-owned Hendra Holiday Park has teamed up with environmental children’s author Ellie Jackson to inspire youngsters to help turn the tide on ocean plastics.
Jackson, who lives in Looe, has written a series of children’s books on the subject which have drawn praise from Sir David Attenborough and Prince Charles.
Under the collective title of Wild Tribe Heroes, they tell the true stories of well-loved animals which encounter ocean plastics and are rescued with the help of people.
Now, with the help of funding from Hendra Holiday Park, the illustrated books are reaching a wider audience of primary school pupils around the Newquay area.
It is hoped the children will be encouraged to take actions such as organising their own beach cleans or litter picks, and setting up recycling at school.
But the park also plans this year to harness the help of its younger and grown-up holiday guests to help beat the plastic menace on Cornwall’s shores.
Among its new initiatives is a collaboration with Tidal Revival which urges families to download a recently launched beach clean app.
Developed by two keen surfers who live in Newquay, Andy Nions and Rob Martindale, it’s claimed to be the world’s first app that rewards users for cleaning beaches and rivers.
Users record how much plastic and litter they have picked up, add a photo of it, and can then use the resulting reward points to gain discounts in participating retailers and food outlets.
These include Hendra Holiday Park, and director Jon Hyatt says that the app is already proving popular with visiting families.
He said: “In summer we often have up to three thousand guests staying every night, so there is a fantastic potential for us to mobilise and motivate a whole army of beach cleaners.”
