Which organisation are you involved with?
The Marine Conservation Society, and more recently with Keep Wales Tidy.

What sort of volunteer work do you do, and where?
We (Keep Wales Tidy) have adopted a section of local coastline including a number of beaches and coves on the Llyn Peninsula - which is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and a candidate for Special Area of Conservation (Marine).

We monitor the state of the beaches and organise groups of volunteers to go down and collect any rubbish. We notify the coastguard if any harmful or suspicious objects or substances are found.

We also quantify what that rubbish is and give feedback on the type of materials washed up. This improves understanding of where the rubbish is coming from - one would be surprised!

We also involve schools and integrate the Keep Wales Tidy/Marine Conservation element into the organised camps we hold throughout the year, so there is an educational element to our work.

As I live on the coast, I'm also involved in various marine and wildlife surveys, helping to monitor seal and dolphin strandings and other marine life in the area.

How did you get started?
When I was about 12 I went camping in the Lake District and I was fascinated by this awesome figure of a biker who was packing up his camp. When he noticed me watching him tidy up, he picked up a used match and waved it at me, and said "every little counts". It had a huge effect on me because you would have assumed that such a person wouldn't have had so much respect for the environment.

When you come across a pile of litter, do you curse at the person responsible, or are you proactive and do something about it - pick it up? Generally, I'm one of those people who does both! I just can't pass something like that by.

I think such awareness and interest could come through self awareness, parental guidance, and the education system. Perhaps it would be better if it did.

How long have you been a volunteer?
I've been helping out locally since about 1996, but I did other volunteer work before that.

Are there any special skills you need to be a volunteer?
No. It's purely an awareness and motivation to be pro-active in life - take action to improve things.

How many hours a week/month do you give?
I'm fortunate enough to be able to integrate walking the dogs and monitoring the adopted stretch of coast, so it gets done on a weekly, if not daily basis. But I do help organise day-long events and other activities.

What are the best and worst things about being a volunteer?
From a purely selfish point of view, you get the feeling that you are contributing, and doing your bit and passing on that philosophy to others. Through organising an event, you get others involved and spread the word, to parents and children alike. It's important to create a greater awareness of what is happening on the planet.

You do come across some nasty rubbish, like chemical drums (sometimes full), syringes and pooper scooper bags complete with contents. It's particularly horrible because I know a young child might have ended up playing with them. How can people be so thoughtless? And the packaging industry has much to answer for.