VOLUNTEERS from a borough coffee shop and staff from Thurrock Council joined the weekend's regular monthly plastic and litter pick along the bank of the river Thames in Grays.

Grays Beachcombers meet at the Thurrock Yacht Club on the first Sunday of the month through the year and their last pick of 2019 proved very productive – and was witnessed by Keep Britain Tidy ambassador Wayne Dixon and his dog, Koda, who are 4,000 miles into a 7,000-mile litter pick around the UK's coastline.

Items collected during the morning session included plastic bottles, pens, cotton bud stems, lighters and wrappers.

Steve Catchpole, lead organiser of the Grays Beachcombers and volunteer waterway clean-up facilitator for the Thames21 project, added: "Organising these litter picks and seeing first-hand the materials that are collected is always an eye-opener. On Sunday, we were joined by 30 volunteers who filled 31 sacks of litter including 97 bottles."

Among regular volunteers and Mr Dixon were staff from Costa Coffee in Grays and the council.

Also taking part were six people from the social inclusion team of registered charity Open Door, which supports young people, families and vulnerable adults in Thurrock. It is based at the Beehive centre in Grays.

Mr Dixon, who is fundraising for MIND and the Northern Inuit Society as he litter picks around the UK's coastline, said: "I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream of walking the coast of Britain and am using this as a platform to raise awareness of the world's litter issue.

"We're seeing the world's litter come up on our shores and we are contributing massively to plastics in the sea. If we all recycled, helped with a litter pick and took some time to think about where our rubbish is going, we can all make a difference."

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Victoria Moorhouse, head of sustainability at Costa Coffee, said: "It's great to see team members from across our stores taking to the streets and parks to make sure we maintain and preserve the local environment.

"At Costa Coffee, we encourage our store teams to connect with their local communities in a range of ways, including litter picking activity. This is all part of our nationwide Community Programme, which focuses on supporting team members in making a meaningful difference to the local communities they serve."

Thurrock Council supports a number of borough-wide litter picks by providing equipment and taking away what has been collected at the end of each session. It also employs 47 members of staff dedicated to the clearance of litter and fly-tipping.

The council has also taken the lead on an initiative to encourage recycling plastic in the borough and has raised awareness of recycling and the impact that plastics have on the environment and local wildlife through various means including engaging with local school children at Dilkes Academy via an interactive assembly.

For more information on how to recycle in the borough, go to www. thurrock.gov.uk/recycling.

To support Wayne and Koda raise funds for MIND and the Northern Inuit Society, visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WayneKoda. Follow their journey at @WayneKoda on Twitter.