PLASTIC bottles, bags, lids and empty food containers. No, that’s not the aftermath of a Christmas party rubbish collection, but just some of the items found on Rhu beach recently.

As the Advertiser reported in December, Helensburgh woman Rhiannon May has been organising daily clean-ups at the area’s foreshores and started off on a solo mission to address the shocking waste issues.

And we got in touch with Rhiannon again for an update on her efforts so far after her initial call for volunteers to help the cause.

She said: “We had a very successful first week of beach clean-ups.

“I was introduced to a fantastic like-minded lady called Kate Williams who is a manager for a local eco-market stall called Society Zero. Kate has also been tackling the local beach litter problem and so it has been great to join forces with her.

“Every morning last week we beach cleaned for an hour or so. We got to see the sun rise and so far the weather has been kind to us – plus it’s pretty good exercise!”

Rhiannon was joined by other residents who were also keen to make an impact, including her neighbour who is five months pregnant.

The majority of items collected will be recycled, with some of the more colourful pieces of plastic donated to a local arts project.

And while she said it has made a great difference having more helpers, she remains concerned over the alarming scale of the plastic problem.

She added: “We are left with many questions over how this litter ends up in the River Clyde and washes up on our beautiful shoreline.

“We need to keep up this community effort to keep our beaches and marine habitat free of litter pollution and work together to stop litter ending up in our oceans.

“We appreciate many people will be busy over the Christmas holidays but hope to see more people joining our Facebook group, Rhu Clean Up Crew, where we will continue our weekly beach cleans and plan to arrange a big family-friendly beach clean-up in January.

“We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped and shown interest.”