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 parameters 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

The area of usable beach behind the highest high water strandline, up to for example, a sea wall or the edge of the dune line (to assess primarily, 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 on 20 occasions during the bathing season (June - 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, describing the aesthetic quality as 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 zone.

Grading Scheme

The final grading is simply the worst grade for any of the above parameters. For example, a beach is graded "A" for all parameters except General Litter which was "B". The overall Grade assigned to the beach is therefore "B".