Yahoo News Beachgoer finds crisp packet from 1969 washed up on Cornish coast
A 50-year-old crisp packet has been discovered on a Cornish beach by an anti-plastic campaigner.
Emily Stevenson, who runs Beach Guardian, found the Golden Wonder wrapper during one of her regular beach cleans on Porthcothan Bay, near Padstow, Cornwall.
Remarkably, the packet appears to have washed up almost entirely intact despite dating from about 1969.
Ms Stevenson said the find highlights the damaging effect single-use plastics can have on our oceans.
She said: “It's shocking to keep finding litter that is decades old, but it's not surprising.
“People back then did not realise that this packaging does not go 'away', there is no away.
“It either stays exactly as it was, or it breaks up into smaller particles which can then be ingested by animals and get into the food chain.”
Ms Stevenson previously hit the headlines when she wore a graduation gown made out of discarded crisp packets.
She organised 107 beach cleans last year through the group she set up with her father Rob.
“At least people are aware of it now,” she added.
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“We hope that there will be a lot less people littering, a lot more people helping to pick up other peoples litter and doing their own litter picks and beach cleans.”
She found the crisp packet, which was priced at 7d and has an advert for Golden Wonder Peanuts on the reverse, on 14 December.
Ms Stevenson also reminded consumers of other ways of disposing of their crisp packets.
“There's also the Walkers recycling scheme so, if people still want to eat crisps they can save their packets, take them to a drop-off point and they will be sent to be recycled.
“You can also help raise money for a local charity. This scheme did not exist when this crisp packet was dropped 50 years.”
