Beach Litter

The beach litter classification scheme was designed to assess the aesthetic quality of bathing beaches used for recreational purposes.This scheme is a visual survey with no litter being collected by the assessors.

The parametres used in the assessment are: sewage related litter and debris, potentially harmful litter items, gross litter, general litter, accumulations of litter, oil pollution and the occurrence of faeces of non-human origin.

Survey Area

There are, generally speaking, two survey areas. They include:

• The area of usable beach behind the highest high water strandline, up to a sea wall or the edge of the dune line (to assess wind blown accumulations of litter).
• The section along the highest high water strandline, the area between this line and the current high water strandline (up to a maximum depth of 50 metres).

Litter assessments are carried out 20 times over the course of the bathing season (June 1st to mid-September).

To view summary results of the Beach Litter Survey for Northern Ireland see the Beach Litter Results section.

The classification scheme is based on four grades A - D, which correspond to Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. The classification scheme is default based with the overall grade being the lowest of the individual grades for each parameter.

Table of Grades for each parameter

The table shows how to assign a grade to each parameter. Litter items are graded on the total numbers counted in each category. Accumulations are graded according to the number of occurrences. Oil is assessed on an estimate of its presence or absence in the survey area.

Grading Scheme

The final grading is the worst grade for any of the above parameters. For example, a beach that is graded A for all parameters except General Litter which is B., will receive an overall grade of B.