Scotland has been awarded the dubious honour of being home to Britain's dirties beaches, according to results published earlier this month.

The Annual Beachwatch study carried out by more than 800 volunteers found more than 55,000 pieces of litter on 52 Scottish beaches.

Roseanna Cunningham, Scotland’s environment minister said that the government was committed to cleaning Scotland's coastline: “We are tackling the problem at bathing waters and beaches, through our new Scottish bathing water litter grant scheme.”

Ms Cunningham also praised the survey for highlighting areas of concern and in raising public awareness.

While recorded levels of debris in Scotland were slightly lower than last year, they were still the highest in the UK, with sewage and sanitary waste at five times the UK average.

The levels found on East Bay beach in Hellensburgh and Clynder beach in Argyll raised the Scottish average considerably.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), which organised the study, pointed out the difficulty of blaming particular beaches, as what is washed up is dependent on the weather and the direction of the tide.

However, the group is calling for the Scottish government to set up a single body to co-ordinate a response. Anne Saunders, Scottish projects officer for MCS said: “Currently there is no government-led body in Scotland to tackle beach litter. We want a co-ordinated strategy to prevent litter getting into the sea in the first place.”

Public waste, such as food packaging, made up a third of all litter. Other major contributors were sewage, fishing products—including nets and lines, shipping litter—and medical waste.

As well as the expense of cleaning up the litter, there is also the devastating impact on wildlife. According to the MCS more that 170 species of marine wildlife have perished due in part to polution.

With help from the government and the public, MCS aim to halve the amount of litter on British beaches by 2015.

The natural environment contributes around seven million pounds to the Scottish economy; preserving it must be given greater priority by the government and by individuals.