'Wave of Waste': Body board dress highlights pollution

A designer dress has been made from discarded body boards dumped on beaches, to highlight the waste they create.

Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy said it collected "a shocking 560 cheap polystyrene boards" on three beaches in Devon and Cornwall.

They were stuffed in bins, left on sand dunes or on the beach, it said.

The so called Wave of Waste dress with its 22-metre (72ft) train, was made using fabric from 100 of the boards.

Neil Hembrow from the charity's BeachCare campaign, said: "The impact of more plastic entering our marine environment is devastating for wildlife and we also estimate that more than 14,000 of these boards are heading to landfill each summer season, costing tax payers money.

"These cheap boards are manufactured in China, shipped more than 11,000 miles, distributed to stores and surfed for ten minutes before breaking and going to landfill, he said".

Designer Dr Linda Thomas, who made the dress, said: "I wanted to create something eye-catching to highlight the problem.

"Even if money is a big issue, these 'snappers' are such poor value that they are letting down both families and the environment."

Keep Britain Tidy said some of the boards it collected will go to "Children's Scrapstore" in Bristol and some of the leftover polystyrene will be used as insulation for a new workshop at a west Cornwall company, but that no company has been willing to re-process the polystyrene due to salt and sand contamination.