Setting the Standard: Let's Set the Bar for Clean, Safe Coastlines

by A Future Without Rubbish

Every summer, our beaches welcome millions of visitors - but behind the sun and sand is a growing crisis: plastic pollution that's poisoning wildlife, cluttering coastlines, and overwhelming our communities.

Across the country, people have come together to care for our coastlines through beach clean-ups. A Future Without Rubbish (AFWR) wants to build on this momentum by making sure these efforts lead to lasting change—not just short-term litter removal. That’s why we’re launching 'Setting the Standard': Suffolk Chapter—a pilot programme to create simple, effective reporting measures, helping turn clean-ups into tools for accountability and long-term impact.

We’re starting in Lowestoft, working with diverse stakeholders to co-create and test these standards through our very own community beach clean. With your support, we can make this large-scale, collaborative event a success—and develop a framework that empowers communities to protect our coastlines and hold polluters accountable.

Project Details

Our new reporting measures will include calculations on carbon saved, manual volunteer-hours logged, and percentage of stakeholder inclusion. To launch and test these, we are kickstarting with our own beach clean called "Setting the Standard" in Lowestoft on 4 July, 2025. This will be followed by other beach cleans and plog-runs (led by Luke Douglas-Home, better known as 'The Coastline Runner') across the Suffolk coastline.

We'll be working with:

• United Kingdom Environmental Law Association (UKELA),
  
• Lowestoft Town Council,
  
• St. Mary’s RC Primary School, 
• Local community action groups, and 
• Residents.

Our aim is to not only test the reporting framework but also to unite and mobilise these diverse actors. We believe that such a sustained effort will make clean and ecologically healthy beaches a norm, rather than an outcome.

How We’ll Spend the Money Raised

We estimate the total cost of the project to be around £2920. As a not-for-profit organisation, A Future Without Rubbish has limited funding available—so any contribution would be sincerely appreciated. Your support would directly help cover: 

• Essential Equipment (£1440): These include 40 units of sustainable litter pickers, gloves, bags, etc. They will be re-used in subsequent beach cleans and plog-runs in Suffolk. 
• Transport Costs (£280): To support travel for our volunteers and AFWR team to the project location. 
• Communications Support (£800): For promotional and advertising materials to raise awareness and drive participation. 
• Administration Support (£400): Basic administrative overheads to ensure smooth delivery of the event.

About 'A Future Without Rubbish'

A Future Without Rubbish (AFWR) is a community interest company whose aim is to tackle the growing issue of plastic pollution, especially in our countryside and coastal towns by helping communities, schools, councils, and businesses become agents of change. Its campaigns are led by The Coastline Runner, Luke Douglas-Home, who has run about thousand kms of the UK’s coastlines, and collected almost 1000 kgs of plastic waste. AFWR has developed another ground-breaking initiative called the ‘ISRRA’, i.e., Initial Site Risk and Responsibility Audit which deals with the issue of historic landfill sites for councils and landlords, and is being considered under 'Zane's Law'. We want to create a systemic approach to fight the issue of waste and unite communities for climate action.

AFWR has organised similar events in the past, which incorporated the school, council and community, and were reported on BBC1 and KMTV.

Website Links:  

• A Future Without Rubbish 
• The Coastline Runner  
• Media Coverage
• YouTube Channel

If you believe cleaner coastlines should be the norm, not an exception - help us! Let's raise a standard together - thank you in advance for your kind contribution.