All of these contribute to the rubbish, some of which ends up in rivers and streams before being ultimately carried down to the sea.
Unusually, inland litter makes up only a small percentage of the unwanted rubbish that sometimes arrives to mar the beauty of the Lizard shoreline.
An unusual location
The unique positioning of beaches like Kynance, Poldhu and Poltesco - near active shipping routes and strong sea currents - means the majority of beach litter comes from marine sources such as fishing activity, jetsam and shipwreck.
In most cases only the ocean knows specifically where each piece came from, so if it can’t be prevented, it has to be collected.
Enter the beach clean-up teams. On average, the National Trust collects one thousand bags of beach litter a year at an annual cost of £5000, not to mention four months hard work every year by volunteers.
It's worth it
It’s worth it though. Such efforts have triggered the setting up of other beach cleaning groups like the Friends of Poldhu, whose mission became urgent in January 2016 following the mysterious arrival of hundreds of bright pink bottles.
The bottles were full of the stain remover Vanish and came from a container that fell overboard during rough weather.