Planet rescuer, 10, spearheads clean-up
TEN-YEAR-OLD Rocco da Silva from Somerset West has become a “saving the planet ambassador” by participating in a beach clean-up along the False Bay coast.
Da Silva was among children from the Future Kids Club (FKC) between the ages of 4 and 16 who with some parents embarked on their 14th clean-up yesterday morning, when they picked up 170kg of litter along Strand Beach and at the public swimming pool.
Da Silva is the brainchild behind the FKC, which was established in April last year. Its an organisation that educates children about their future by providing them with the platform to help save the environment.
Da Silva said the idea of a kids’ club began when he became fed-up with the sight of the plastic litter along the beaches and roads in the area.
The most common items found were straws, chip packets, bottle tops, lollipop sticks, cigarette butts and fishing lines.
“In the last 13 months we’ve collected over 920kg of waste. It comes from the people who litter, sea currents, ships throwing litter overboard and the wind, which also then blows this litter straight into the rivers that flow into the sea,” said Da Silva.
“Beach visitors aren’t able to enjoy the beach when it’s full of litter. All the waste drives them away and the plastics lying around also make people vulnerable to getting hurt,” he said.
Various guests and an intern from the US attended the clean-up yesterday to give the children educational talks about plastic pollution and its effect on marine life.
Interwaste assisted with the cleanup, weighing, sorting and undertaking to recycle the litter found.
“One of my long-term goals is to raise money to provide dustbins to areas which don’t have them and to teach people to recycle,” Da Silva said.
“This is the children’s future, which means we need to take a stand now.
“If we don’t get involved now there won’t be a planet left for the future generations,” he said.