Westward Ho! beach litter being turned into buckets and spades

Plastic litter is being collected from beach cleans to be turned into buckets and spades.

The project has been set up in Devon, with the first beach targeted being Westward Ho!

A number of beach cleans will be arranged by Plastic Free Torridge between May and July to collect the plastic that will make the toys.

It is the idea of Callum Wardle who said the concept was born out of his final design project at university.

He hopes the initiative will support marine conservation and offer a "sustainable alternative to bucket and spade sets already on the market".

Mr Wardle said: "It makes no sense to use a finite material like oil to make plastic for beach toys when so much plastic is found on our beaches every day."

Phoebe Gibbs from Plastic Free Torridge said they were "proud" to see Westward Ho! as the first beach: "There is so much plastic deposited on our beaches after every tide it's heart-breaking.

"Now when we find a plastic bottle or fish crate, we can smile knowing it will be repurposed into a beach toy."

Designs for buckets, spades and lids have been approved, with more being worked on.

Mr Wardle said the collected beach waste will be sorted into types, washed and dried ready for shredding, before it is blended and fed into an injection moulder.

This will then heat up the plastic to be injected into another mould, before it is cooled and removed.

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