North West Highland Beach Cleans, Scotland

North West Highland Beach Clean volunteers were out to Kinlochbervie today to tackle Loch Clash beach..
In 3 hours, 5 volunteers managed to remove over 166kg of plastic off the beach.
We re-used / recycled 123kg of plastic today from a total of 210kg, so almost 60% not going into landfill.

Here are our group results for February 2026 and the totals for the year to date

Here are grouo beach clean results for December and the overall results for 2025.

Almost 9.5 tonnes of rubbish removed from North West beaches this year !

Here are our group results for mid-December.

22 tonnes of rubbish removed ! How amazing is that in less than 2 years. A fantastic effort by all the volunteers, well done everyone

Here are the NWHBC group results for November

Another busy month with the stormy weather providing lots of material on our beaches for volunteers to collect

Already past 9 tonnes of rubbish for 2025 & likely to exceed 22 tonnes before the end of December since the group started in January 2024.

A video of the salmon feed pipe removed from Balchladich beach in Assynt this weekend.

It took several hours to drag the 110m of pipe weighing 152 kg off the beach.

In total 292kg of plastic removed in just 2 days by 3 volunteers

Here are our latest group results for September
This means we have now reached the amazing total of 20 tonnes of rubbish since group was formed in January 2024. Quite incredible !
Huge thanks to all our volunteers who have worked so hard over the last 21 months to reach this total - superstars all !

Here are our group results for August.

Huge effort by volunteers this month saw almost a tonne of rubbish removed from North West beaches ! This means we have now removed over 7 tonnes of rubbish in 2025 &
are just under 200kg short of reaching 20 tonnes since forming in January 2024 !

3.1 kg of lobster hooks collected by our beach clean volunteers so far this year being sent to our friends at Caithness Beach Cleans.
They will be repurposed and made into wheelie bin clips, recently approved for use by both Orkney and Highland councils.
Monies raised funds their beach clean work.

The latest NWHBC group clean saw 18 volunteers remove 332 kg of rubbish from Balchladich beach, Assynt.
Last cleaned in June 2024, this means that over 300kg of plastic has accumulated in just 14 months.
63 kg of the hard plastic was taken to Ullapool Harbour for recycling.

Here are the North West Highland Beach Cleans group results for July.
Well done @everyone, an impressive amount of beach litter removed this month, now over 6 tonnes for this year !
Keep up the great work beach cleaners.

Here are the North West Highland Beach Cleans results for June.

This means we have now removed 5.5 tonnes of rubbish for the year so far.

Latest visit to Ulva volunteering with the amazing team from Scottish Coastal Clean Up.
Over 4 days 10 volunteers tackled 7 beaches removing over 3 tonnes of litter, visited the local primary school to create a piece of art work from beach litter & took part in a piece of filming with Banjo Beale

Here are the North West Highland Beach Cleans group results for the month of May and year to date. Another great effort this month, well done everyone

Here are our group efforts for April and the YTD.

Closing in on 5 tonnes of rubbish for the year already. Keep up the great work @everyone together we are making a huge difference to our beaches !

Lots of unusual stuff found on our beach cleans this weekend but Max from Scottish Coastal Clean Up trumped us all with this find on one of the beaches.
Not one but 2 cetacean teeth !
Photos emailed to Georg Hantke National Museums Scotland who confirmed that the teeth are from a Sperm whale !

The final North West Highland Beach Cleans / Scottish Coastal Clean Up saw the group tackle a beach below Polbain.
In 5 hours 7 volunteers removed a total of 243 kg of plastic.
Over 3 days 31 volunteers completed 5 beach cleans and removed a total of 1102 kg of plastic from the Wester Ross MPA.

Many thanks to the 11 volunteers who cleaned Reiff & Loch of Reiff yesterday for the second North West Highland Beach Cleans / Scottish Coastal Clean Up beach clean in Coigach. In total over 70 feed bags & 6 tonne bags were filled in 6 hours resulting in the removal of 735kg of plastic.

First day of the Scottish Coastal Clean Up / North West Highland Beach clean weekend in Coigach saw 10 volunteers cleaning Badentarbet beach.
In 5 hours we removed 103.8kg of rubbish consisting mainly of small offcuts of rope & twine.
Sometimes weight removed doesn't reflect the effort involved !

2 rather different ways of tackling the mountain of rubbish on Crossapol beach, Isle of Coll on Saturday !

Here are our group results up to 14 April

We completed the Coll beach cleans today organised by Scottish Coastal Clean Up & RSPB Scotland. Over 3 days 3 beaches were cleaned - Feall, Port ant Saoir & Crossapol - resulting in removal of 1.75 tonnes of beach litter.
Many thanks for your help and hospitality. Hopefully see you all again soon !

First day of the Scottish Coastal Clean Up trip to Coll completed. Over 6 hours the group completed a beach survey & removed 200kg of litter from
What an amazing place ! Even better now after a good clean.
Great to be able to chill out at Coll Bunkhouse after a hard day on the beach.

Here are our group results up to the end of March.

A huge increase this month due to volume of individual beach cleans completed & the large beach clean at Raffin / Culkein Drumbeg meaning that we have not only smashed through 15 tonnes collected but have now reached a new milestone of 16 tonnes.

The latest @nwhbeachcleans.bsky.social group beach clean of Raffin in Assynt as part of the @keepscotbeautiful.bsky.social Big Spring Clean campaign saw 30+ volunteers remove 1118kg of rubbish from a 1km stretch of beach over 3 days.
The largest single item weighed 106kg !

12 lengths of salmon feed pipe and 3 tonne bags filled with rubbish at the collection point, ready for removal by quad after the big beach clean planned for 22-23 and 26 March

Some of the feed pipe stacked against the cliff at the back of the beach waiting to be dragged to the collection point

The feed pipe was cut into 7m lengths in the hope that it can be re-cycled by someone building a polytunnel

A 70 metre coil of salmon farm feed pipe washed up on Raffin beach, Assynt

Out to Raffin, Assynt with @finlaypringle.bsky.social to remove a big coil of salmon feed pipe & start gathering up the already collected litter into 3 tonne bags.
A couple less jobs to do ahead of the clean planned for 22-23 March to coincide with @keepscotbeautiful.bsky.social Big Spring clean

Here are the latest group results up to 17 March.

Our volunteers have now removed over 14 tonnes of plastic since forming in January 2024.

Keep up the great work everyone !

Here are our group results for February.

Great to see so much beach cleaning effort taking place in North West Scotland despite the often poor weather.

Well done @everyone keep up the amazing work !

Here are the group's results up to 16 February.

The first tonne of litter collected for 2025 !

Well done beach cleaners keep up the amazing work.

Out to Balchladich beach in Assynt this morning to remove a large length of fish farm pipe. Took opportunity to tidy up the beach too.

In 3 hours filled 5 bags & chopped up 50m of pipe into 3m sections to fit in the car.
Total removed 80.19kg, 40kg of pipe & 40kg of rope, twine & small plastic.