A group of far north volunteers are doing their bit to reduce the blight of plastic waste on their coastline.
Caithness Beach Cleans have been keeping tabs on the weight of the loads they have recovered and have just passed the 2.25 tonne mark.
The group is preparing to send off the first batch for recycling.
The organisation was set up by Thurso woman Dorcas Sinclair who previously did beach clean-ups on her own.
She said: “I was seeing more and more plastic on the beaches so when I started the new group, we thought it would be a good idea to weigh what we picked up each time.
“We have had about nine regulars on our clean ups and we have now taken off 2.32 tonnes of plastic.”
Mrs Sinclair, 62, said the bulk of the refuse involves nets, nylon rope, creel wrappings and boxes from commercial fishing.
But she adds: “We obviously come across loads of other rubbish – tyres, household items and food waste.
“We prioritise plastic but we will lift anything else, especially if it is posing a hazard.”
The group spreads itself far and wide with the past week seeing it at beaches at Harrow, Dunnet, Gills, Sarclet, Whaligoe and Scrabster. It has also visited a couple in north Sutherland.
Mrs Sinclair says it has no qualms about contacting companies which cause a lot the pollution, saying: “I will write a polite letter to them pointing out what we have found and asking them if they take measures to stop future arisings.”
The group has found a lot of fishing debris with tags identifying it having come from Nova Scotia.
The humpback whale recently found washed ashore dead in Scrabster beach had been fatally entangled in fishing gear originating in the Canadian territory.
Mrs Sinclair, a carer for her mother, has gone from going to a beach every week to making four to five trips a week since she started the group.
She said: “We keep very basic records: the date, the beach, and the weight of plastic we pick up.
“I have also started to do beach reports as much out of interest as anything else but I do send these in to the council.
“Our Facebook group has 106 members, nine of which are actively weighing. Others pick up but don’t weigh.”
The group has a special mission tomorrow when it will at the beach at John O’Groats in support of round Britain cyclist Kiko Matthews.
The women’s world record holder for rowing the Atlantic is cleaning up beaches en route, with Groats marking the half-way point on her 6700 kilometre marathon.