Jaime Lowrey
'There are so many benefits to cleaning up your beach or town. The fresh air, the exercise, the feel-good factor; it can really boost those endorphin levels. Inspiring more people to join in definitely helps, too, even if they just take one piece away, or a small bag full.'
Jaime Lowrey
Lockdown gave Jaime Lowrey an opportunity to look at her local area in a new light – and see how she could make it better. She's taken a stand for nature by cleaning up litter on St Bees beach and encouraging others to do the same via her @stbeessaints Instagram account.
Here's more from Jaime:
'I moved to St Bees in my mid-20s and, looking back, I know that I took the big, beautiful expanse of space at our beach for granted. I didn’t visit it much, making plans and taking trips outside of town.
But during the recent coronavirus lockdowns, that all changed. The beach became one of the places I visited regularly with my children, especially my youngest, born in April 2020.
As a life-long lover of nature, I had always been one to pick up the odd bit of litter when out and about in general daily life. During these more frequent visits to the beach, I started paying more attention, picking up bits of fishing rope and food wrappers, and hastily throwing them under the pram to dispose of properly later on. I was happier knowing I’d made the playground and the beach safer and cleaner.
After a while, the ‘beach cleaning’ mindset stuck and I realised the storage section beneath the pram wasn’t big enough. Inspired by the then newly installed @2minutebeachclean station at the beach, I decided to get some gloves and a large, reusable shopper or two to fill instead.
The photographer in me thought ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, so I started my @stbeessaints Instagram account to raise awareness. I wanted to highlight the issue that very often, innocently, gets overlooked by the majority, and to also inspire others to join in, to normalise litter picking.
Since then, I’ve found lots of ‘treasure’ – from Barbie dolls to cricket bats, lego (lost at sea near Cornwall in 1997!), a chocolate bar still in its wrapper from 1985 (vintage!).
As well as these interesting ‘treasures’ I find a lot of plastic cotton-bud sticks, plastic teeth pick harps, face/baby wipes and other sanitary items on our beach that have incorrectly been flushed down toilets. ‘Ghost gear’, or pieces of fishing nets, rope and pots from the fishing industry are also a common find.
A lot of the litter being washed up on our shores originates in our towns and villages, having been littered or disposed of incorrectly, making its way to the sea via the waterways, through our drainage systems and down the rivers.
There are so many benefits to cleaning up your beach or town. The fresh air, the exercise, the feel-good factor; it can really boost those endorphin levels, even when a stormy winter’s day or a summer’s day full of tourists has brought more to clear up. Those days can sometimes feel overwhelming, so inspiring more people to join in definitely helps with the mental and physical load, even if they just take one piece away, or a small bag full.
With @stbeessaints I hope to raise an army of beach cleaners in and around the area. Who wouldn’t want to keep the Lakes looking its best?'
Join us for an upcoming beach clean