Beaches in England and Northern Ireland saw the biggest drop in the number of plastic bags found during the clean up - over half compared with 2015.
In Wales the number - just under four bags for every 100 metres cleaned - was significantly lower than any other year since 2011, while in Scotland volunteers found on average one bag fewer over the same distance this year compared with last year.
The charity also said there has been a drop of almost 4 per cent in the amount of litter found on UK beaches between 2015 and 2016, with 6,000 volunteers collecting 268,384 items. [...]
Beaches in Scotland saw a decrease of 18 per cent in overall litter levels, rubbish in the North East of England dropped by 14 per cent and in the Channel Islands by 10 per cent.
However, there were increases in the amount of beach litter in the North West, 24 per cent, Wales and the South West, 15 per cent, and nine per cent in Northern Ireland. [...]
The positive news comes as separate figures reveal that two thirds of plastic consumer goods packaging which could be recycled is in fact being thrown away.
Only half a million tonnes of the 1.5 million tonnes recyclable plastic waste created each year is being recycled, data from plastics recycling organisation Recoup show.
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