Having a bash at clearing up trash

THE last of the Two Oceans Aquarium’s four Trash Bash Beach cleanups, hosted in collaboration with The Beach Co-op, took place at Sunset Beach earlier this month.

One of the goals of Trash Bash is to collect scientific data about the 12 most prevalent plastic litter items found in the ocean, how they are distributed and the rate at which the debris collected on Sunset Beach. These items are dubbed “The Dirty Dozen”.

To study the accumulation of the Dirty Dozen, the same 1km stretch of beach was cleaned up four times throughout the year. Individual sweet wrappers, lollipop sticks and discarded earbuds were the big pollution items found, entering the ocean as windblown litter or via wastewater.

Interestingly, there is a proportional increase in items like chip packets, drinking straws and water bottles after the winter rains – a strong indication that much of the litter on this beach is washed into the ocean with stormwater run-off.

The aquarium team said uncountable amounts of microplastics and nurdles were also found during these clean-ups and experts would be looking at ways to more effectively clean and quantify these types of pollution.

“With your suggestions, 2019 is going to see a bigger, better and even more incredible Trash Bash clean-up,” the team said.

“We’ll be saying goodbye to Sunset Beach and moving to new locations for the next year of clean-ups and scientific study. We look forward to seeing you all again and being able to welcome new communities of Trash Bashers into our midst next year.”

We’ll be saying goodbye to Sunset Beach and moving on... Two Oceans Aquarium