Staff from HSBC have pulled out all the stops for Beach Buddies in a series of events across the island.

Every Friday for a month teams from the bank tackled litter around beaches including Marine Drive, Port Soderick, Port Grenaugh, Derbyhaven, Langness, Castletown, Happy Valley, Douglas, Brewery Bay and Perwick Bay.

HSBC employees were able to take part thanks to the bank’s volunteer programme, which gives staff a day off to support a charity or community project of their choice.

Beach Buddies’ founder, Bill Dale, said: ’Altogether we shifted almost two thirds of a ton of rubbish from beaches, mostly plastic bottles, tin cans and fast food containers.

’In all the years of running beach cleaning events for companies the HSBC team collected more rubbish per head than anyone else. I was very impressed.’

Jaime Amoedo, HSBC’s head of commercial banking and senior manager, said: ’I’m proud of the team for rising to the challenge.

’Helping the island’s environment is important to us. It’s great knowing we’ve made the beach areas more enjoyable for islanders and visitors.’

Equipment, insurance and risk assessments for volunteer events are all provided by Beach Buddies.

A series of company beach cleaning events are scheduled for the coming months and the diary is filling up quickly.

Beach Buddies, sponsored by FIM Capital, does not charge those wishing to take part. Companies interested can make contact via the website www.beachbuddies.net.