500 in huge beach clean-up at 15 locations
KOTA KINABALU: Over 500 people in 15 locations around Malaysia participated in a beach clean-up to collect data on the scale of the marine debris problem facing Malaysia on March 3.
Led by Reef Check Malaysia (RCM), participants included dive operators, resorts, community members, school kids, NGOs, government agencies, the private sector and tourists.
The clean-up was carried out at Gaya, Mantanani, Lankayan and Mabul Islands in Kota Kinabalu.
Julian Hyde, RCM general manager, provided the context for the clean-up.
“Marine debris is a problem that is attracting attention around the world, as we realize that plastic is getting into the food chain. So this effort was intended as a first step in raising awareness, to bring attention to the problem – and start to find real, practical solutions, rather than just keep repeating the clean-ups.”
The clean-up is the first in a series of events that will celebrate International Year of the Reef 2018.
Data collected from the cleanups will be analysed over the next weeks and published later in March.
But the headlines tell the story: preliminary data shows that volunteers collected over two tonnes of trash, including nearly 14,000 plastic bottles, 6,200 plastic bags and 1,700 straws.
Monica Chin from Trash Hero Borneo, led one of the clean-ups in Sabah.
“It is very sad to see trash everywhere in our beautiful Borneo. Some people just don’t care at all. I strongly believe that if we put all our hands together, we can easily solve the problem of trash. We are the ones who create trash, only we can reduce it, keep it under control and stop it for good. The key here is to care about our impacts to the environment! We clean, we educate, we change. Together we can make a difference!” said Monica.
On Tioman Island, it was the first time the entire island came together to show their support and participate in this beach clean-up. The many different groups worked effortlessly and collected a huge amount of trash in just a few hours.
Alvin Chelliah, Programme Manager of RCM’s Tioman community programme said: “It was great to see dive operators, resorts, local community, government departments and NGOs getting together for this effort. It was the first time cleanups were done simultaneously in every village around Tioman.”
Some corporate partners led their own teams to conduct clean-ups.
Lim Jit Cheng from KPMG Malaysia, a long time supporter of RCM, said: “It is shocking to see how much trash you can find on a beach that looked pretty clean to start with.”
Hyde said that he had been surprised by the response.
“Amazing. We tried to keep this small because we had no budget, but it just kept growing as more people asked to join in. From four participants we ended up doing clean-ups at 16 locations. We have to say a huge thank you to all partners, who gave their time and effort for free.”
The next step is to encourage all stakeholders to get together and start looking for solutions.
“We need to meet with the relevant government departments, including the National Solid Waste Management Department. We need the big food and drink companies there – we are already talking to Coca Cola and F&N, as well as the industry body Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association. We need to find technologies to deal with the plastic, economic incentives to make it more likely that people will recycle, we need better recycling logistics – the whole thing has to change,” says Hyde.