NOT only are we scarring Dorset roadsides with litter but also polluting beaches with potentially lethal rubbish.

Latest figures show that the number of plastic bags blighting our beaches has grown by a fifth in a year and Dorset is among the worst offenders.

Seventy-two carrier bags litter every mile of coastline posing a massive threat to marine and bird life.

Chesil Cove came second after a Kent beach with 68 plastic carrier bags picked up, according to Marine Conservation Society figures from last September’s annual Beachwatch survey.

And this comes on top of the nearly two tonnes of rubbish – including fly tipping – cleared last month from a five mile stretch of the Spur Road, from the Ashley Heath roundabout to the Blackwater junction – at a cost of £10,000.

A graphic illustration of the dangers of rubbish was the sickening photograph of the drake mallard at Hatch Pond, Poole, in yesterday’s Daily Echo, with a plastic tin holder stuck in its breast.

“Discarded plastic is a huge problem in our seas and on our beaches in Dorset,” said Julie Hatcher, marine awareness officer, Dorset Wildlife Trust, which is a member of the Litter Free Coast & Sea Campaign.

“It can take hundreds of years to break down in sea water but breaks up into small pieces and is often eaten by seabirds and other wildlife or causes injury and entanglement.

“We can all contribute towards the solution – reduce the amount of plastic packaging we buy and discard.

“Use refillable bottles, re-usable shopping bags, choose items with minimal and non-plastic pack-aging.”

In the latest beach spring clean, the Great Dorset Beach Clean which took place in April, 923 people helped spruce up 24 Dorset beaches. The largest number of sacks, 70, was filled at Holes Bay, Poole.

Karyn Punchard, street scene manager for the Dorset Waste Partnership, which along with Bournemouth council spent five nights clearing the Spur Road of litter, said: “As individuals we can all play our part in keeping Dorset beautiful by taking our rubbish home with us and recycling as much of it as possible.”