Cape Town - Community environmental organisation the Beach Co-op, with various partners, collected 2 150kg of litter during 30 beach clean-up operations along the Cape coast this year.
The partnership between the organisation and Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages saw positive results in cleaning up various stretches of coastline, including Monwabisi, Sunset Beach and the Robben Island coastline.
During the clean-ups, the team documented waste collected on the day, adding it to their research and analysis, including tracking the Dirty Dozen list of waste culprits.
The waste collected included fishing lines, cigarette lighters, lollipop sticks, earbuds, straws, sweet wrappers, cooldrink and water bottles and lids, carrier bags, chip packets and small sticks.
According to a UN report, poorly run landfills and the levels of waste being washed into rivers and waterways contributed to between 90000 and 250 000 tons of rubbish being dumped in the ocean annually.
Priscilla Urquhart, head of public affairs, communications and sustainability for Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages, said this was equivalent to five garbage trucks dumping their litter into the sea every hour.
She said this had a huge impact on the social well-being of communities and posed a serious threat to marine life, human health and all economies.
“The issue of plastics, recycling and ocean pollution has never been more crucial. We all need to play our part in protecting the environment and the communities we live in,” she said.
Urquhart said the company was trying to find new ways to educate customers and communities on how waste was affecting the environment, especially marine life.
The Beach Co-op operational manager Megan-Rose Francis said the Dirty Dozen™ were the 12 most common items found on beaches and rocky shores and largely represented consumer habits, in terms of packaging for on-the-go food and beverages and were chosen as indicators of the most significant sources of plastic litter from ocean vessels, land-based sources and beach users.
“Our organisation, through research, evidence-based education, and experiential learning, wants to connect communities and people to keep South Africa’s beaches clean and to protect our oceans’ health,” she said.