‘Picnic litter from around 40 years ago (Picture: Liverpool Echo)

Stormy weather has unearthed the remains of a decades-old ‘picnic’ on the beach.

The time warp of left over old sweet wrappers, crisp packets and fizzy drink cans at a coastal beauty spot near Liverpool were revealed by strong winds.

Bitter weather shifted the sand dunes and dredged up what seems to be the contents of a picnic from around the 1980s, at Formby Beach on Merseyside. The items include Rileys and Murphy Crisps, Jusoda, Irn Bru, Coke cans and a loaf of bread from 1983.

The find is likely to fuel fears around plastic pollution, which has been an increasing public concern since David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II highlighted the scale of the problem worldwide. Last week academics told Metro.co.uk that micro and nanoplastics in the air could be damaging human health when we breathe them in – sparking urgent calls for further research.


A Tesco bag from the find (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Sand worn Irn Bru (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Jusoda was another of the drink cans found on the beach (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

‘Golden Bake’ bread (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Safeway orange juice (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Plastic litter has also been blamed for a variety of issues impacting marine animals.



40 years has done little to break down the old rubbish that was dumped on the beach, with crisps even remaining intact inside one packet, The Liverpool Echo reported.

The discovery was made by local photographer Colin Lane, 49, who was walking his terrier Monty at the time.

He explained: ‘It looks like the storms have shifted the sands and exposed this bag that must have been buried for decades.

The sandy litter was found by Colin Lane (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

Suncream, drinks and snacks were among the items found (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

The bread’s packaging reads ‘From January 1983’ (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

A Rileys crisp packet – with some out of date snacks inside (Picture: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)

‘The storms have had a devastating effect for miles along the coast. Sand dunes have completely disappeared.’

Twitter users tried to pin down exactly how old the rubbish from this beach picnic could be, with many suggesting some of the items could have been a few years older than the bread.

Earlier this year, a yoghurt pot with a 1976 Olympics design was discovered on a beach in Spain’s Costa Blanca region.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.