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Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex’ daughter Lady Louise Windsor, 16, joined her parents and younger brother James, Viscount Severn, 12, for a beach clean-up on Sunday. The Wessexes took part in the Great British Beach Clean alongside volunteers from the Marine Conservation Society at Southsea beach in Portsmouth.

Lady Louise, who recently received her GCSE results, was donning a pair of blue skinny jeans and green shirt.

The 16-year-old revealed she worried about the negative effect the coronavirus pandemic had on single-use plastic.

She and mum Sophie touched on the lack of official advice on how to dispose of PPE.

Lady Louise said she was concerned the progress people had made with using reusable plastic cups had been lost during the pandemic.

She said: “Everything has got worse this year because everyone has gone back to non-reusable, non-recyclable plastic cups.”

Sophie added: “It’s so great that campaigns like Keep Britain Tidy are going. It’s so important that we all get our to keep our communities clean.

“The trouble is that Covid has exacerbated the problem.

“But hopefully now that people, are actually seeing it, that maybe it will make people more aware that we have all got to play our part and do something.

“We are lucky enough to live next door to a lovely forest, and I come back with handfuls of litter every time we go for a walk.”

The Great British Beach Clean is run by the Marine Conservation society and its volunteers have removed 319 tonnes of litter from their local beaches over the years.

During the pandemic, PPE and face masks have been found entangled in sea birds and other wildlife.

Currently the charity is organising a beach clean-up from September 11 to 27.

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The spring clean-up was due to take place from March 20 to April 13, but was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Speaking about PPE ending up on beaches, the Countess of Wessex said: “The medical profession, they know what to do with it.

“There is no information about how people should dispose of them.”

She added: “We aren’t being told what to do with them.

“Obviously we would want to encourage people to use these lovely reusable masks, but sometimes you can’t.

“It’s so difficult because councils are stretched at the moment.

“But if they were to make recycling units available for people to use.

“Medical facilities and the medical profession obviously know what to do with it, they will have recycling facilities.

“I don’t know whether they incinerate, I’m not sure….but we just don’t know what to do with them.

“In an ideal world we would all just use these lovely reusable ones.”

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