World Cleanup Day Celebrations in Sri Lanka
The World Cleanup Day is the largest one-day civic action against waste to emphasize the global mismanaged waste problem and its impacts on the environment. Millions of volunteers joined globally to do beach cleanups to promote behavioral change, create awareness of the waste around us and to divert the attention to this crisis.
The Pearl Protectors, a volunteer-based, nonprofit marine conservation organization that seeks to reduce the human impact on the marine environment with volunteerism, youthengagement, awareness and advocacy, hosted a beach cleanup at the Dehiwala Beach in light of World Cleanup Day on the 19th of September 2020. The event commenced with a step-by-step guidance on conducting an effective beach cleanup. Partners for the event were AIESEC University of Colombo and University of Moratuwa and Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) who was a support partner through its International Coastal Cleanup initiative.
More than 60 volunteers joined in to clean a 1km stretch of beach in Dehiwala. The waste collected was segregated into PET bottles, single-use plastics, glass and metal. Over 100 kg of waste was collected; the majority of which included plastic sachets and wrappers. The Dehiwala Municipal Council collected the waste to be recycled. A positive response was showed by the communities in the vicinity while the volunteers acknowledged the need to reduce and refuse single-use plastic.