CIS holds coastal cleanup
Do you know that our oceans are drowning in plastic we throw away every day?
Thousands of marine animals die every year from feeding on plastics, and plastic remnants have been found in the food we eat, making it a global health concern.
To raise awareness, the Ocean Conservancy recently organized an international coastal cleanup day involving hundreds of thousand volunteers around the world.
The Philippines has been identified as one of the biggest contributors of plastic pollution in the world.
Using the international focus as a springboard, at least 30 students from Cebu International School (CIS) has organized a beach cleanup.
With the goal to promote sustainability, CIS students involved at least 50 local children in the cleanup of a beach site they had previously cleaned up.
The activity also included education sessions in Cebuano, using short videos and mini-lessons, about the dangers of using plastic. The idea is to empower and educate the people who use the coastal waterways every day that every piece of plastic kept out of the water counts.
The cleanup and education session ended with the creation of signage to remind beach users to properly dispose of the garbage they produce.
The CIS community is committed to raising awareness of the devastating long term impact plastic waste will have on future generations and plans to spread the message to reduce plastic whenever possible.
The CIS shares some tips to the public to help reduce the use of plastics. These are: to refuse using plastic straws and utensils, to ask supermarkets and take out vendors for alternatives to styrofoam and plastic wrapping, to bring own bags for shopping, and reading labels on things like cosmetics that use plastic microbeads.