Plettenberg Bay beach brighter after cleanup

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PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - A number of volunteers made their way to the sands and dunes between Beacon Island Resort and Robberg 5 Beach in Plettenberg Bay on International Coastal Cleanup Day, 21 September, cleaning up nearly 20kg of rubbish during their cleanup.

Throughout the year, volunteers and researchers from the Nature's Valley Trust (NVT) NPO clean up beaches around Plettenberg Bay on a monthly basis, targeting a section at a time.

The groups pick their locations from the Robberg, Keurbooms, Nature's Valley, and Lookout beaches, according to NVT research assistant Chanel Hauvette.

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She said the greater goal of International Coastal Cleanup Day is to rid the world's beaches of rubbish and filth. "In partnership with volunteer organisations and individuals around the globe, Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day engages people to remove trash from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris and to change their behaviour," she said.

Hauvette expressed her heartfelt gratitude for the assistance they received from their cleanup partners. "We couldn't have done this all without Plastics SA who supplied us with buckets, reusable gloves, data sheets, pencils, bags and posters for the day. Pick n Pay also supplied us with reusable shopping bags, which worked wonderfully for microplastic collection."

The work done by the volunteers on the day was highly commendable, as they managed to collect just over 17.58kg of waste. According to Hauvette, this included 206 cigarette butts, 24 glass bottles, 28 plastic/foam packing materials, 163 pieces of plastic, and hundreds of other items also picked up. Some of the more unusual items included an entire newspaper, one bicycle tyre repair patch, two hairbands, one sock, and a pair of Crocs footwear.

The group of volunteers that took to the beaches and dunes between Beacon Island Resort and Robberg 5 Beach.