Visitors to Harwich beach create five times more rubbish than visitors to a neighbouring resort, it has been revealed.
Environmentalists carried out a clean-up on Harwich beach last September.
Now the figures have been compiled and show that five times more rubbish was collected than at a Clacton beach.
Martina Weatherley, of pressure group Spindrift, called for more action in cleaning up the area.
She said: "It seemed that most of our items were from beach visitors, so it seems we are trashing our own doorstep.
"We had five times as much rubbish from beach visitors as Clacton did at Martello Bay. I feel the cleaning programme for Harwich beach is nowhere near what it needs to be that is illustrated by these figures.
A team of 11 volunteers carried out the Harwich clean-up.
They found more than 1,450 items of rubbish in a 100-metre area.
Nationwide results from the Beachwatch project, which is organised by the Marine Conservation Society, saw more than 1,980 volunteers help remove 222,704 items from 194 UK beaches.
Published Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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