Giving Plett a good polish
PLETTENBERG BAY - A group of residents participated in a global movement over the weekend to rid the coast of rubbish.
The local clean-up, organised by the Nature's Valley Trust, saw participants gather on Central Beach on Saturday for World Cleanup Day. This annual event, one of the biggest civic movements in recent history, unites 166 countries across the world with the goal of ensuring a cleaner planet. World Cleanup Day was born in 2008 when 50 000 people in Estonia aimed to clean up the entire country in just five hours. It has since grown into a global event taking place on the third Saturday of September and involves cleaning up litter and mismanaged waste from beaches, rivers, forests and streets.
Since 2018, World Cleanup Day has brought together millions of people for the biggest waste collection day in human history. In 2018, 17,6-million and in 2019, 21,2-million eco warriors joined an epic 36-hour green wave of cleanups across the world - beginning in New Zealand and travelling around the world before ending in Hawaii. This year's theme was "Connect and Collect".
"It was so wonderful to see all those that came out to join us for a really important issue," the NVT team said. "Everyone split into groups and took to the beach, finding debris from the smallest nurdles to bottle caps, large glass bottles, shoes, and hundreds of cigarette butts. The goal is really to get people to think about their waste and how they dispose of it, and to encourage better habits for future generations."
The NVT had a busy weekend as World Cleanup Day was preceded by their Kurland Village Cleanup on Friday.
"We would like to give a big 'NVT thanks' to everyone who braved the rain and came out to support our 13th annual Kurland Village Cleanup Event. It has been quite an eventful week for NVT, kicking the week off by assisting Visions Of Change SA with an afternoon of tree planting at the Crags Primary School.
“We all got our hands dirty and connected with nature helping to plant indigenous trees that are vital for producing oxygen, storing carbon, providing shelter and food for wildlife."
Friday's activities for World Cleanup Day, however, rained out and the team could not achieve the rubbish round-up they had hoped for. "As such we took to Plan B, where we watched the My Octopus Teacher documentary which really piqued the interest of the learners and reinforced the day's take-home message: to continue to help protect our surrounding environment which contributes to the restoration of damaged ecosystems and helps mitigate the effects of pollution on our marine environment." The morning was ended with a group photo and a handover of some lunch packs and promotional items.