Record clean-up for local volunteers
The clean-up on Saturday was bitter sweet, as the volunteers' success meant that there was still tons of waste on Durban’s beaches.
IT was a bittersweet victory as the KZN Beach Clean-up volunteers recently collected 89 bags of rubbish, weighing 580 kilograms, from the beach at Blue Lagoon.
According to Durban North resident and founder, Natalie Gorven, it was their biggest clean-up to date.
This shockingly, after a massive clean-up was organised by the Umgeni Estuary Conservancy and several local businesses at the uMngeni River mouth at the end of January where a mammoth total of 1 300 bags of litter were collected.
The second biggest clean-up of the organisation was at Virginia Beach, where they collected just over 500 kilograms of litter.
“The scary part is that at the Virginia Beach clean-up, we collected mostly glass bottles; however today, the rubbish mainly comprises of plastic bottles and polystyrene that doesn’t weigh nearly as much as glass,” said Gorven.
What’s more, she said, was that the day’s 51 volunteers also collected a lot of household litter and ‘take-away rubbish’. “A lot of the litter obviously comes from beach-goers who simply do not respect the beach,” she added.
Fellow volunteer, Andrew Botterill, echoed her sentiments, saying, “People need to take pride in their city and respect their fellow community members as well as other species,” he said.
Botterill suggested the municipality enforce ‘litter police’ to monitor popular recreational areas and fine those who litter. The next clean-up will be held at the Beachwood Mangroves on 20 February from 9am to 11am.
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