GAME staff hit an Urban Beach Clean high score

At the start of August, over 30 staff from the leading high street retailer, GAME, joined forces with Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) staff to run an Urban Beach Clean, helping to tackle litter in the area close to their Basingstoke HQ – and achieving a WDC high score of 21 full bin bags of litter in under an hour.

The team, made up of staff from various teams across the business (and kitted out in #UrbanBeachClean t-shirts for the occasion) collected almost 500 items of litter, including a shocking 128 plastic bottles. They also collected approximately 182 soft drinks cans, 244 sweet and crisp wrappers, 20 wet wipes and a staggering 84 plastic bags, as well as some more unusual items including an umbrella, a BBQ, a bike pedal, a paintbrush and a rusty scooter! See below for the full breakdown of the items collected as part of the team’s fantastic efforts.

WDC also spent the morning with a wider group of GAME staff helping to raise awareness of the issue of plastic pollution in our ocean and the devastating impact that it can have on whales and dolphins. After a screening of the inspiring documentary ‘A plastic ocean’, WDC’s plastics lead, Sonja Eisfeld-Pierantonio, answered a host of questions from staff keen to reduce their use of ‘single-use’ plastics and toured the GAME office to help make recommendations for ways the business can also continue their work to tackle plastic pollution.

GAME CEO, Martyn Gibbs, commented:

“Helping beat plastic pollution in our oceans has been a hot topic recently, and at GAME, our employees and leadership team alike are increasingly keen to be part of an environmentally sustainable business. We were therefore delighted that WDC agreed to come and share their expertise with us, along with a whole host of workable tips to help us make lasting changes.”

“The WDC team also supported our first #UrbanBeachClean in which 30 people headed out to clear up our local area to help prevent plastic pollution reaching our oceans. We couldn’t believe how much we collected in such a small area, in such a short amount of time; 21 bags in under an hour, along with 2 traffic cones and a rusty old scooter! Our employees are now asking when our next #UBC will be, and thanks to WDC’s initial support, we feel confident to make it a regular event at GAME. Huge thank you to Pine, Marina and Sally for all their help, enthusiasm and expert guidance – it was enormously appreciated by us all!” said Ellie Dennett, Employee engagement manager at GAME.

WDC’s partnerships manager, Abbie Cheesman, added:

“We are incredibly grateful for GAME’s support on this vital issue and for the wonderful staff who got brilliantly stuck in on their #UrbanBeachClean. More than 480 billion plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world.  The plastic in these bottles does not break down like natural materials – it does not go away, it just goes from being a floating bottle to tiny plastic particles that are easily eaten by fish and other marine species or simply spread even further afield. A single 1L bottle could break down into enough small fragments to put one on every mile of beach in the entire world – so knowing that there are an extra 128 now safely disposed of thanks to the efforts of the GAME team (as well as all of the other waste collected), is fantastic! In addition to their litter-picking efforts, generous GAME’s staff also raised over £300 for WDC through a staff raffle, which will help the team continue their work to protect whales and dolphins from plastic pollution”.

If you are inspired by GAME’s staff and would like to arrange an Urban Beach Clean for your own school, office or business visit https://uk.whales.org/urban-beach-clean