completely rubbish

"A normal plastic bottle may persist for more than 450 years if left on a beach." (Surfers Against Sewage).

so how about plastic bags, a disposable bbq, a pringles tub...oh and a pair of sunglasses?

yesterday was bliptastic with lots of shots to choose from of a beautiful clean beach. today was blipdrastic - not only because of the lack of inspiration, but because of the content of the final scene i chose tonight.

i decided to multitask after work this evening: walk the dog >> while running >> while carrying my slr in a wee backpack. the run was hard going. the dog was tired. and the blip opportunities weren't flowing.

i ran out from edinburgh to Portobello beach: "edinburgh's seaside" and was absolutely appalled to see the beach utterly littered in rubbish. this scene may look like a fun picnic, but was actually the unbelievable abandoned remnants of somebody's gathering. The sunshine may have been out today but how does this excuse us from, quite simply, using a litter bin or taking our rubbish home with us? i couldn't believe the number of people still lying out on the beach, quite literally amidst piles of litter. disgusting.

Over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and over 1 million seabirds die every year from ingestion of and entanglement in marine litter. i didn't expect the shores of edinburgh to be contributing to this to such a great extent tonight.

the most remarkable moment was that as i was taking this picture, a young boy looked at me, looked at the scene and said to his gran, "look at the mess o' that beach gran'.

Sad. Very sad.