The Travelling Tag

Plastic tag from Newfoundland found on North Wales beach.

While picking up beach litter at the Big Arty Beach Clean, Hell’s Mouth, Pen Llyn, Lee Oliver, Gwynedd’s Keep Wales Tidy Officer spotted the most amazing pieces of plastic. In amongst the most common plastic litter, including q-tip sticks, pop bottle lids, and plastic fishing net/rope, were these tags.

The blue tag at the bottom reads ‘08 DF0 LOBSTER NL’ and is a lobster pot tag from Newfoundland, Canada.

The red tag on the left reads ‘Frogorificos Conchado S.A. Espaňa’ and is a tag to identify a meat carcass. Fricosa is a family meat business in Culleredo, A Coruňa, located at the top of North East Spain.

I don’t know where the red tag reads ‘SCS’ on the right comes from, do you?

The amount of plastic found to the beach 26 March astounded me and is beginning to change how I view plastic. It’s the modern wonder material, so resilient it can travel from Newfoundland (since 2008?) and remain in tact and still readable.
I am questioning the amount of plastic in my life and discarded plastic I place in my black bin and ultimately send to landfill.
We all need to carefully monitor plastic in our environment and make sure it is disposed of responsibly. A pop bottle abandoned at a beauty spot can end up in a river going off to the sea.

More information can be found on the Marine Conservation Society’s Litter ‘Clean seas and beaches’ pages.

I would rather find beaches full of pebbles, sand and wildlife NOT plastic.