MORE than 400 kilos of rubbish have been removed from Isle of Wight beaches after a community group cleaned up two coastlines.

Planet Aware conducted two clean up events on beaches near Niton and Freshwater.

On June 25, volunteers cleaned Watershoot Bay near Niton.

On July 2, the group, joined by teams from the Isle of Wight Distillery and the National Trust, cleaned the beach at Compton Chine.

Beach clean leader Sarah Marshall said: "It is sad to see so much marine litter pile up.

"We know members of the public all want to play their part to help by removing this from the beach which is fantastic.

"The problem is however, that large items are difficult to remove and once left in a pile they attract more litter.

"It certainly has been a workout removing all of this and we would encourage anyone picking up marine litter from the beach to try to take what they can home with them.

“It is great to have the support of the Isle of Wight Distillery and inspiring to know that even in these challenging times local businesses still want to do their best to work toward sustainable practice.

"We are grateful to the support from the National Trust team and waste contractor Amey who collected the waste from these events.”

Xavier Baker, co-founder of the Isle of Wight Distillery, said: “Planet Aware has done a fantastic job of clearing some of our stunning coastline.

"The Distillery team were delighted to fall in and contribute to clearing Compton beach.”