london
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British shores disappeared under a blanket of uncooked fries and onions after a container ship spilled its cargo earlier this month.
A clean-up operation began on Tuesday along the coastline of East Sussex, southeast England, after containers from two cargo ships fell overboard during storms late last year and earlier this month, the local county council said.
Joel Bonnici, a resident of the resort town of Eastbourne, told CNN on Monday that onions started appearing on the beach last Wednesday and that he believes some residents went to help retrieve the plastic bags in which the onions were packed.
Bonnici said she and her partner Trisha were hiking to see seals at Falling Sands on Saturday. “Everyone was helping out, and we were picking up the last bags of onions as we went.”
“What I didn’t expect was to turn the corner and see another sight of chips and bags of chips stretching across the beach towards the lighthouse,” he said.
“From a distance, the beach looks like it’s covered in yellow sand, like you would see on a tropical island,” Bonnici continued.
“Soon we both decided we were done hiking and decided to spend the next few hours packing up as much as we could until it got too dark to continue. Other families were doing the same and it was nice to see people coming together for the environment,” he added.
“Thousands of bags”
In a Facebook post on Sunday, environmental group Plastic Free Eastbourne called for more volunteers, describing the “chaos that has seen thousands of bags of crisps and onions spilled from shipping containers across this fragile stretch of land”.
“Seals and other marine life often mistake plastic for food, and plastic bags in particular look like jellyfish in the water,” the group said, adding: “Plastic pollution is a serious threat to our oceans.”
Bonnici said it was sad that so much plastic pollution was occurring just meters away from a colony of 20 to 30 seals.
“On Sunday, we were very happy to see so many local residents respond and come out to help. We have unloaded, but there is still a lot of work to do,” he added, warning that anyone wishing to help should avoid the high tides.
A spokesperson for Eastbourne Borough Council told CNN on Monday that the plastic wrapping of French fries that had washed up on the shore had been “largely removed by volunteers”.
The council added: “We would like to thank the many dedicated volunteers who have worked hard over the past few days to clear debris from the coast.”
Other beaches nearby are also flooded with debris from recent cargo spills.
“Yesterday we collected 1.9 tonnes of waste from the beach, almost four times the amount we normally collect at this time of year,” Brighton and Hove City Council said in a Facebook post on Friday.
Salvage company Brand Marine told CNN in a statement on Monday that it was working on behalf of the owner of the Lombok Strait container ship, which lost 17 refrigerated food containers in the Jan. 8 storm.
“The company is working closely with local authorities and the British Coast Guard on the container discovery and salvage process,” it added.
