Plett joins world in coastal clean-up
Plettenberg Bay residents joined the rest of the world on Saturday 19 September with a massive beach clean-up effort on International Coastal Clean-up Day. The day's activities, which were spearheaded by the Nature's Valley Trust (NVT), highlighted the impact that people have on the coast as almost 33kg of trash was collected in a small area in one hour. The NVT team said about 30 people made their way between the Piesang River and the Beacon Island rocks on Saturday morning, collecting rubbish along the way. The collection weighed in at 32,8kg.
A closer look at what was collected showed that cigarette butts, food wrappers and foam pieces were the biggest problem. Volunteers picked up 379 cigarette butts, 285 food wrappers and 231 foam pieces. Other big contributors were bottle caps and lids, of which 168 were collected. More than 140 straws and stirrers and 157 plastic pieces were also picked up.
Other rubbish included plastic and foam take-away containers (19), cutlery (8), plastic bottles (10), glass bottles (20), plastic bags (46), paper bags (3), plastic and foam crockery items (14), other plastic and foam packaging items (136), strapping bands (27), tobacco packaging (14), appliance materials (5), cigarette lighters (2), construction materials (15), condoms (3), diapers (3), toys (4), foil (3), hair extensions (4), clothing (8), disposable masks (4), reusable masks (1) and glass pieces (14).
The clean-up was sponsored by Pick n Pay's People n Planet initiative and supported by the Keep Plett Clean campaign and Knysna Toyota. The rubbish was removed with a truck thanks to Robberg Quarry.