About The 1000 Tyres Project

The 1000 Tyres Project aims to remove tyres and other pollutants from our marine environment, starting by cleaning up Plymouth Sound in Devon, UK.  This project started in 2020 and has already removed tonnes of rubbish from the sea and foreshore.  While looking for shipwrecks for another project we found hundreds of tyres and other rubbish that had been dumped in the sea.  Tyres pollute the sea by producing large quantities of microplastics and by leaching poisonous chemicals into the water, so we decided to remove as many as we can.

The 1000 Tyres Project team work underwater and on the foreshore, we map the seabed using sonar and map the foreshore on foot, identifying the rubbish and recording its location.  The tyres and rubbish are recovered by volunteers or by commercial diving contractors on bigger jobs, then it is sent off to be recycled by our commercial supporters.  The project team also spend time educating the public and stakeholders about the problems of rubbish in Plymouth Sound. The 1000 Tyres Project is run by The SHIPS Project CIC .

Media Use Policy

Our images and text are published under a CC attribution non-commercial licence (unless stated otherwise) . Feel free to use the information for non-commercial purposes but please credit 'The SHIPS Project'. Please read more about it here.

The 1000 Tyres Project is kindly supported by Sea Changers and Chris Parkes Photography .