'It's emotional to see what we have achieved'

The founder of a litter-picking group has described the "emotional moment" when he returned to the same beach 20 years later... and found only one small piece of rubbish.

Bill Dale said he started Beach Buddies Isle of Man on 6 January 2006 after finding mounds of rubbish near Ballaugh Beach while walking his dog.

"We spent the next five weekends picking up litter there," Bill explained, remembering that volunteers had recorded about 30,000 pieces of rubbish.

Returning two decades later and finding only a partial chocolate bar wrapper, Bill said: "I sat down, looked out at the ocean and thought 'Look at what the people of the Isle of Man have achieved as a nation!'"

The group was initially a select band of two - Bill and his former partner.

Two months later, he appealed for others to help them since it was "too big a task" for two.

The first event saw 45 people pick up rubbish, and by the next week there were 85 volunteers.

Thereafter, they came up with the name Beach Buddies and ran weekly events each Sunday which saw about 1,500 people participate in the first year.

"Once the word got out, schools wanted to get involved, so did companies," he said.

"But we thought if we are going to do this, it is pointless just picking the rubbish up, and it is never-ending, so we thought let's try and break the chain," he said.

The charity launched an education programme across the island's schools, which Bill said was "the greatest thing, because the kids go home and educate their parents".

Over the years, 21,000 different people have participated in Beach Buddy events, contributing hundreds of thousands of hours and picking up 2,000 tonnes of litter, he said.

Beach Buddies, which has also installed 50 bins across the island's coastline, recycles as much of the rubbish as it can.

The remainder goes to the Energy from Waste Plant.

Bill said litter-picking brings a "sense of achievement and there's a sense of addiction too - people tell me ever since they have been beach cleaning, they can't walk past a piece of rubbish without picking it up".

He added: "I think it makes people realise even one person can make a difference.

"Even if you just clean up 50 yards outside your house, or your favourite local park, if you just pick up a few pieces, it sets a wonderful example.

"Once somewhere is clean, you realise it's wrong to litter because you're the only one dropping rubbish."

Bill added: "It's a very simple and effective way of cleaning up the beaches, and the beautiful thing is, this has stretched to the roadside, the parks, the plantations and the mountain."

There have certainly been some unusual items of litter found on the island's beaches over the last 20 years.

Bill said hundreds of rubber ducks washed up on the shore.

Searching for answers online, he saw identical rubber ducks were being washed ashore around the world around that period.

They had been reported to have come from a ship that sank off the coast of Brazil 20 years before.

"The human race has caused an appalling problem in the world's oceans, and we have done our little bit here to combat that," Bill commented.

He said that on Tuesday he "went to the same spot where it all started, and thought I will just pick up whatever is there, but I couldn't find anything.

"I couldn't believe it, it was quite an emotional moment.

"I walked back and found one partial wrapper of a chocolate bar, and I thought what a difference in 20 years!"

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.