A new cleaning fad is threatening to wipe out progress in the drive to reduce litter on North East beaches.

Wet wipes are littering beaches, including those in the region, as more people choose to use the moist cloths to remove make-up, replace traditional toilet paper, apply fake tan or for general bathroom cleaning.

According to the latest beach litter data collected by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and published on Thursday in its Great British Beach Clean report, numbers of wet wipes found on beaches increased by over 50% in a year.

The rise in the number of wipes on beaches between 2013 and 2014 equates to 35 of the little squares on every kilometre of coastline cleaned by the charitys volunteers.

Nationally during the weekend-long event last September, 5,349 volunteers cleaned and surveyed over 300 beaches.

A total of 2,457 pieces of litter were collected for every kilometre cleaned and surveyed in 2014 compared to 2,309 in 2013.

In County Durham the figure was 11,488 and in Northumberland 912. On the two Tyne and Wear beaches surveyed, the figure for Tynemouth Longsands was 910 items per km and for Sandhaven in South Shields it was 97.

MCS Beachwatch officer, Charlotte Coombes, said that the problem is that wipes are being put down the loo instead of in the bin. She said: Our sewerage systems werent built to cope with wet wipes. When flushed they dont disintegrate like toilet paper, and they typically contain plastic so once they reach the sea, they last for a very long time.

They can cause blockages in our sewers, and then, everything else that has been flushed down the loo can either back up into peoples homes, or overflow into rivers and the sea.

Overflows also happen during excessive rainfall, or if the plumbing hasnt been connected up properly meaning the wrong pipes are heading straight to the sea.

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North East beaches see wave of wet wipes littering region's coastline