You wouldn’t normally go for a walk on the beach in heavy rubber boots, carrying a huge rubbish bag and tongs. Volunteers of all ages, all over the world, are doing just that this year, between 19 September and 19 October, in the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Challenge.
There’s more to this cleanup than just picking up ugly, disgusting, and sometimes dangerous, rubbish off a beach. This year’s theme – Starting a Sea Change – aims to inspire and educate people not only about the need to clean up our coastlines but also to understand that this is more than a one-month-a-year commitment to the marine environment.
Floating pieces of plastic, bottle caps and other indestructible items such as toothbrushes, can seem like a tasty treat to marine life. Dolphins, seals, turtles and fish, as well as birds, who mistake such things for food, can choke to death or suffer the consequences of toxicity or blocked digestion.
The most common items found worldwide in the 2008 coastal cleanup were:
- cigarette butts
- plastic bags
- food wrappers or containers
How much coastal rubbish was collected in 2008?
- 25,000 kg - by 5,000 volunteers in Hong Kong
- 8,000 plastic bags and 4,000 plastic beverage bottles in HK
- 3.3 million kg – by 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries and locations
Take up the Challenge in Sai Kung!
The Friends of Sai Kung (FSK) is joining the HK International Coastal Cleanup Challenge this year and organizing teams to clean up the Sha Ha Beach.
ANYONE can join:
Date: Saturday, 10 October 2009 – 3pm to 7pm
Place: Sha Ha Beach (below the Beach Bar and Chinese restaurant at the north end of the promenade), north of Sai Kung Town
Click here for how to register.
Further information:
Click here for Explore's article on the 2006 Challenge in Sai Kung.
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