A TEENAGER spent three hours picking up rubbish from Southend beach.

Joe Greenwood, 19, from Thundersley, did the litter pick on August 30, spending many hours by himself cleaning up the beach.

He said: "This was my first time dedicating a full day to litter picking. I have always hated walking past the litter on the beach, so I decided to start doing something about it.

“I’ve lived in the area my whole life and have seen how littering in Southend has got increasingly worse over the last few years, so have always made a habit of picking up whatever litter I see when out along the seafront.

“As much as I hated, and still hate, the fact that this is having to be done by volunteers, I got a great deal of satisfaction from the knowledge that it was getting done, and that I could be the one to help make that difference to the area.

"This is by far the worst amount of litter that I’ve ever picked, but I’ve heard plenty of stories from other people that do litter picking in the area. Of course you have to be careful of needles and broken glass, which is why I always wear protective gloves.

"You do find some strange stuff though; some of my findings included a 2x2 meter roll of turf, and accidentally came across a bible that someone had buried, wrapped up in a scarf. I quickly returned that to where I found it.

"I have no words for the people who litter. In a part of the world where we are all very aware of the state of our current climate, and we have such easy disposal outlets for our rubbish - why litter?

"Whether it’s a single piece of litter or a full bag, when you leave it on the beach, you leave it to go straight into the sea, and into our oceans, where our sea life will swim in it.

"This has been the real reason that I’ve started doing it, for the sake of the environment. I’ve also recently turned vegetarian for the same reason."