2014 International Coastal Clean-up Day a huge success

The clean-up took place on Saturday, 20 September 2014 and thousands of volunteers and numerous volunteer organisations removed garbage from beaches around South Africa.

Director of Sustainability at Plastics|SA and chairman of the National Recycling Forum (NRF), Douw Steyn, said this year's turnout proves that residents, businesses and civic organisations are dedicated to ensuring trash free beaches and oceans for future generations.

"More groups participated and adopted beaches to clean than any previous year. We were blessed with good weather on the day, and the mobilisation efforts around the country exceeded our expectations. We are thankful to all who sacrificed their day for the betterment of the nation," Steyn said.

Biggest volunteer event

This worldwide event is the biggest volunteer effort for ocean health and takes place annually in over 130 countries worldwide. It is coordinated globally by Ocean Conservancy and is dedicated to cleaning up beaches and raising conservation awareness. This was the 19th year that South Africa participated in this event.

Beach clean-ups took place around the country's shorelines on Saturday, although some schools and communities also coordinated beach and river clean-ups in their communities during the Clean-Up and Recycle Week SA, which took place from 15-20 September 2014.

Highlights of this week included a Clean-up and Recycle week project that took place at the Barona Child Care Centre in Soweto, where Plastics|SA teamed up with ABI and Emeraude to educate the students and community members about recycling and what type of wonderful products that could be made from recycled and upcycled plastics, as well as an education day with Durban Solid Waste (DSW), aimed at educating the informal collectors with information on recycling of plastics.

Helderberg area

On Saturday, Plastics|SA teamed up with KZN Wildlife and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to clean up Reunion Park at Isipingo Estuary Mouth and Cutting Beach at Merebank. Also, the first clean-up took place on the shores of the newly proclaimed Helderberg Marine Protected Area (Western Cape), where a total of 400 bags of garbage and two tons of larger pieces were removed on this small stretch of beach alone.

"The hard work begins now as we work through the data sheets that were filled in by the coordinators and volunteers during the clean-ups. We work closely with Ocean Conservancy to compile and analyse the data we receive after each year's clean up. This proves us with a detailed report published annually by Ocean Conservancy, giving the world's only item-by-item, location-by-location snapshot of marine debris in an annual report. By understanding what is out there, we can work together on solutions," Steyn says.