Two southside local authorities are helping Beach Buddies.

The boards of commissioners in Arbory and Rushen are the first in the island to team up with Beach Buddies to empty the charity’s bins positioned around the coast.

They have agreed to empty the distinctive ’Buddy Bins’, which can be seen all over the island.

Many are sponsored by companies and individuals to help raise funds for the charity, which has three bins in Rushen and Arbory - at Fisher’s Hill, Strand Hall and Brewery Beach - which will now be emptied once a fortnight by the authorities’ bin wagon team.

’This is a very significant step forward,’ said Beach Buddies’ founder Bill Dale.

’For the last four years we have been emptying our "Buddy Bins" by hand, and it’s not been an easy job as they are sometimes really heavy, and we have frequently found some pretty nasty stuff inside, such as bags of rotten crab shells and heavy builders’ materials.

’So, to have the bins emptied is a really big help. It’s back-breaking work for us, whereas a bin wagon can do this automatically without staff needing to lift heavy items. This is very much appreciated by us.’

David Radcliffe, the chairman of Rushen Commissioners, said: ’We are very happy to assist the work of Beach Buddies in any way we can.

’Their work in recent years has been invaluable in raising awareness of the huge problem of marine litter and developing community cooperation to tackle the problem.

’We would like to help Beach Buddies make inroads in addressing the widespread general litter problem evident all over the island.’

The commissioners are asking letter pickers to put only burnable waste in the bins as they can’t take metals, glass and stone to the incinerator.