More than 60 volunteers scoured the city’s beach and picked up some 40kg of rubbish as part of a global effort to fight plastic pollution.

Sea Life in Brighton organised the beach clean on Wednesday as part of Sea Life Trust’s 24-Hour Global Beach Clean. The Brighton event was one of 53 which took place across the globe in a bid to reduce the eight million tonnes of plastic entering oceans annually.

The volunteers collected less rubbish than in previous yearsThe volunteers collected less rubbish than in previous years (Image: Sea Life Trust) Keira Ley, operations manager at Sea Life, Brighton, said: “We had 60 volunteers turn up – they were mostly locals but there were teams from London too. We spread out over the beach and in two hours collected over 40kg of rubbish. It’s a lower amount than we have seen before so perhaps the messaging is getting across and people are finally taking their litter home.”

Among the standard wrappers and bottle tops the team found an eclectic mix of objects including soft toys, a spanner and a baby’s hand made out of concrete.