Keeping the Overstrand clean

Writer: Taylum Meyer.

International Coastal Clean-up Day (ICC) took place on Saturday 19 September with millions of people from over 100 countries getting together to pick up litter, making it one of the largest one-day volunteer events in the world.

The movement was started 30 years ago by two committed ladies, Linda Maraniss and Katy O’Hara, who both worked at Ocean Conservancy. The idea behind the movement is that litter and debris collected by volunteers are documented to help identify ways to eliminate ocean trash in the future.

Several groups in the Overberg once again got involved, including Plastic Patrol, BirdLife Overberg, Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT) and Overstrand Municipality. After the clean-ups, Plastics SA gathers all the information which is then fed into the global statistics held by Ocean Conservancy. The clean-ups also create awareness and educate people on the effects of littering and pollution.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 18)