Volunteers clear washed-up bags of chips from beach

Volunteers have been working to remove thousands of bags of chips which washed ashore on a beach in Sussex.

The clear-up operation was launched amid concerns over the potential impact of the debris on wildlife.

The chips washed up near Eastbourne after several shipping containers with "food and packaging" were found to have came ashore on Tuesday.

Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC) said on Monday that the plastic had "largely been removed by volunteers".

Trisha Barros, who was helping to clear the bags, told BBC Radio Sussex when she saw the beach on Saturday it was "just a sea of chips, it was a bit insane".

She said that the bags, which went "as far as the eye can see", were stacked about 1.5ft (0.5m) on top of each other.

Barros said she cleared "a couple hundred bags" on the first day with her partner, but others started to help after a call for volunteers was put on social media.

Barros, a veterinary nurse, explained that she also had concerns about the impact the chips and bags could have on local wildlife.

"That is a massive concern that this might affect the wildlife," she said.

"Chips, onions, plastic, all of these are toxic to them."

Barros also raised concerns that animals, including seals, could eat the clear plastic bags.

Trevor Weeks, founding director of East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service, said the primary risk would be to the water quality due to the decomposition of the potatoes.

He said: "This can lead to localised oxygen depletion which can affect fish, crustaceans, and other small organism, especially in sheltered areas or tidal pools.

"There is a risk to scavengers as the high starch loads can cause gut fermentation, cause diarrhoea, vomiting, regurgitation, dehydration, [and] bloat."

The chips came ashore in Falling Sands, which is near Beachy Head cliffs, after three shipping containers washed up at Seaford on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the HM Coastguard said a container off Littlehampton, West Sussex, was also recovered, along with debris off Beachy Head.

"An aircraft was sent to survey the area on Friday and no further containers were spotted offshore," they added.

They said containers which had previously washed up at Selsey, Eastbourne, Newhaven, Rustington, Rottingdean and Beachy Head were being monitored.

They came ashore a month after 16 containers fell from the cargo vessel Baltic Klipper near the Isle of Wight and days after several containers fell from two more ships off the island during Storm Goretti.

East Sussex County Council has urged members of the public to take extra care if they are visiting the coastline.

The council said it had been working with maritime salvage specialists Brand Marine, who have been helping the shipping company which had been transporting the containers to clear the debris.