Boy, 9, puts poster up at Southwick beach to encourage people to not litter

Jamie Hewitt was staying with his grandparents in Worthing when he created the poster and displayed it up for all to see on Thursday, June 3.

The year-six pupil, who lives in Horsham, was inspired to make the poster after discussing his school work about the environment, litter, plastic and the importance of recycling which he and his classmates have been learning about in the hopes of obtaining a Blue Peter badge.

Jamie’s proud grandmother, Hazel Hewitt, said: “He drew a very sad looking planet and surrounded it by drawings of the litter that he sees so often everywhere, particularly on the beaches and grass play areas.

“He then spoke about statistics that had been researched on the internet, and wondered if many people realised that only a small amount of plastic was actually recycled.

“He felt so strongly about this that we decided this should be added to the poster, so the little square added to the top of the poster with a red arrow reads’Facts - only nine per cent of plastic is recycled. Think - What happens to the 91 per cent’”

“Poster done we wondered how we could get people to read it – many months before lockdown we worked on a different poster about pollution in the seas and displayed it on our front door, but Jamie thought we needed to reach a larger audience this time!

“We had plans to take him to Shoreham Port the following day to see the locks working, so took the poster along.

“After spending some time on Southwick beach we found a suitable spot to put the poster. Jamie hoped that as people came off the beach they would read the poster and check that they had left no litter. In his eyes, job done!

“I popped down to the area Sunday evening to see if the poster had survived – unfortunately the main drawing has gone, but surprisingly the little square of ‘facts and think’ was still there - the most important part of the message as far as Jamie was concerned.”