MORE than a hundred residents, school pupils and volunteers threw their weight behind a clean-up operation at the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve on Saturday. The clean-up which was organised by KZN Beach Clean-up, was founded by Durban North resident, Natalie Gorven.

The former Danville Park Girls’ High School pupil said she was ecstatic with the turnout. The organisation covers beaches from the Bluff all the way to Westbrook Beach on the North Coast.

“I didn’t expect so many people but it was awesome to see such a great turnout. A lot of what we picked up today is plastic bottles and polystyrene which has floated down river and settled at the mouth of the uMngeni Rive. This kind of pollution adversely affects mangrove swamps, by not only degrading the quality of the plant life and the water in the swamp, but also affecting the insects and animals that also live there. Once that rubbish makes its way to the oceans, it starts affecting more wildlife,” she said.

Last month, the organisation along with volunteers, collected 89 bags of rubbish, weighing 580 kilograms, from the beach at Blue Lagoon, their biggest clean-up to date.