A POPULAR seafront restaurant is on a mission to tackle litter on a beach in Christchurch.

The Noisy Lobster at Avon Beach is inviting visitors to the beach to collect a bucketful of litter in exchange for a free coffee.

The idea was thought up by photographer Matt Pinner and the initiative is set to officially launch on Monday, December 11.

It has already attracted praise on social media after a sign was put up on the beach raising awareness of the upcoming campaign.

Owner Peter Hayward said: “We watched Blue Planet and it raised a lot of issues and stirred a lot of emotion and we felt like we needed to do something.”

Sunday night’s episode of BBC One's Blue Planet II, which has become one of the most watched TV programmes of the year, will be the last in the series and will explore how the oceans are threatened by human activities including overfishing and pollution.

An episode shown last month featured footage of a pilot whale carrying her dead newborn calf after it was believed to have been poisoned by his mother's polluted milk.

While in another scene, a hawksbill turtle was shown getting caught up in a plastic sack before it was freed by a camera operator and swam away unharmed.

Peter said: “We’re inviting people to bring in loose litter that they’ve picked up on the beach which they can bring to the restaurant or takeaway and we’ll give them a free coffee.”

“We try and keep the beach clean but obviously there’s only so much we can do ourselves.”

“The staff seem very onboard with it so hopefully with the Christmas holidays coming up we’ll have people picking up litter and a nice clean beach for 2018.”

“You realise how important the beach and the sea is as it’s the lifeblood of our business and where our seafood comes from”.

“We’ve got our quarter of Avon Beach that we’re responsible for and it would be nice for other businesses nearby to get involved and be part of a little community.”