Thanks to our thousands of fantastic volunteers who collect beach litter data, we can now see the impact these charges have had."

Beaches in Scotland saw a decrease of 18 per cent in overall litter levels, rubbish in the North East of England dropped by 14 per cent and in the Channel Islands by 10 per cent.

However, there were increases in the amount of beach litter in the North West, 24 per cent, Wales and the South West, 15 per cent, and nine per cent in Northern Ireland.

Analysis of the data collected by volunteers also showed a rise of over four per cent in the quantity of drinks containers found on the UK's beaches, including plastic bottles, bottle tops and aluminium cans.

There was also a rise of just over half the past year in the amount of balloon-related litter found on beaches.

Turtles mistake plastic bags and balloons for their jellyfish prey, and the items can block their digestive systems leading to death from starvation.

Some species of seabirds are particularly attracted by the scent of this plastic junk "food".