SIXTY staff from Royal Caribbean Cruises took part in a beach clean in Fareham as part of the holiday company’s G.I.V.E. Day volunteering programme.

RCL, which operates Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, worked with the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) to host the event with the Beachwatch team, which is the marine charity’s national beach cleaning and litter surveying programme.

G.I.V.E., which stands for “Get Involved Volunteer Everywhere,” is a community service event that brings together RCL employees, their families, friends, vendors and business partners to assist non-profit organisations and improve the quality of life in their local communities.

Participants from RCL met at Meon Shore at Hill Head in Fareham for a full briefing where litter pickers and bags were provided to collect rubbish along Hill Head Beach.

The beach clean is just one of the many initiatives that RCL has organised as part of its Save the Waves programme, which was established in 1992 in recognition of the company’s sustainability and environmental protection aims.

Following the beach clean along a 100m stretch of Hill Head Beach, participants from RCL and the Marine Conservation Society stopped to sort through the rubbish and weigh the contents to record their findings. Volunteers also took part in a fun and informative quiz before continuing with a wider beach clean and then participated in an educational exercise looking at how long litter takes to break down in the ocean.