Last week the 1000 Tyre Project kicked off its campaign to remove over one thousand tyres currently resting at the bottom of Plymouth Sound.

The campaign, organised by marine archaeologists from the SHIPS Project with help from Luke Pollard MP has begun the work of lifting the tyres from the seabed.

The team, which previously worked on archiving the archaeological sites in the waters around Plymouth, noticed the high concentrations of microplastics and tyres in the marine environment. Working with Plymouth University they have been able to use sonar data to map and catalog all of the tyres in Plymouth Sound.

Last week they began the work with special guest Ross Kemp diving to the bottom of The Sound in Cawsand and recovering the first of the tyres. 

Luke Pollard said:

“This project has been an important step forward in working to clean up the local marine environment that has experienced ecological damage over the past decades.

 

Tyres account for thousands of kilograms of microplastics that harm marine life in the waters around Plymouth and the rest of the British Isles.

 

The success of the 1000 Tyre Project could provide a huge boost to the local marine environment and potentially provide a model used nationwide to help combat the ecological crisis and reclaim our marine habitats.

 

Local communities, like ours in Plymouth, have it within us to shape our future by working to keep our ecosystems clean and free of waste. But that means getting involved.”

The 1000 Tyres Project is looking for volunteers to come out to events and help with the collection of waste on the foreshore and on land. Anyone from the community can partake (wellies are advised) in helping to clean up our wonderful coastline.

The next cleanup will be on Saturday 9th of October, more information is available here.

You can also contribute to the crowdfunder here.