RUBBISH collected from the 12th annual beach clean across South Ayrshire was featured on the One Show on Monday night as part of their documentary.

More than 800 bags of waste was collected by volunteers of South Ayrshire Rotaries on Saturday, April 7.

Some 636 were collected by Ayr Rotary alone from seven beaches, sparking interest from the One Show team who invited them to send the rubbish over to be displayed on the programme.

The programme, Ocean Plastic Pollution, was aired at 7pm on Monday, April 16.

Ron Ireland of Ayr Rotary said: “The BBC One Show contacted us last week. 

“They are building a massive heap of marine plastic outside the London studio for a One Show programme devoted to plastic pollution and recycling. 

“The programme is on April 16 and they are collecting donations of plastic from beach cleans around the country including our Ayrshire beaches at Turnberry. 

“They have already picked up 20 one-tonne bags of plastic which we have sorted for them.”

Thanks to small army of volunteers, 330 bags were removed from 2km of Dowhill to Turnberry Beach which had never been cleaned before as well as a further 75 bags from the adjacent 1km long Dunnymuck beach.

Another volunteer said: “This staggering combined total of 405 bags was loaded into 40 large bulk bags, which are now heading for London by lorry, to to be dumped outside the BBC as the main exhibit in The One Show special on Ocean Plastic Pollution.

“Plastic rubbish formed 93 per cent of the total stuff gathered on these 3km of beach.

“In contrast to these wild beaches, after 12 years of Rotary Beach Cleans, much less litter is now being collected from the town beaches of Girvan/Ballantrae, Doonfoot, Ayr, Prestwick, and Troon, thanks to an increased public awareness – and the sterling work of local resident groups, who now patrol and clean these beaches on a regular basis.”