How we can all do our bit to clean up

We are all familiar with the mantra, ‘It only takes one person to set change in motion’, but do we truly believe it and act to get positive things in motion?

The last in the #ZOPlasticChallenge series is about people who have taken on a challenge and changed the lives of others.

Probably the best example of this in recent years is the story about Afroz Shah, the young lawyer and environmentalist in Mumbai, India.

In 2015 he moved to a coastal apartment overlooking Versova beach and was shocked by the level of pollution.

The beach was covered in rotting garbage, people could not walk along the beach or swim in the water without being subjected to the terrible stench.

When interviewed by CNN, Shah said the plastic waste was 1.6 metres high, and that ‘a man could drown in the plastic’.

Deciding to take action, Shah and his 84-year-old neighbour would go to the beach and pick up as much rubbish as they could.

Shah soon realised he would need to expand his team to have the desired impact, so he began knocking on doors to enlist the help of other neighbours.

He soon recruited more than 1 000 volunteers from all walks of life.

After almost two years of litter picking, Shah’s Versova Residents Volunteers group removed 11 684 500 pounds (5 842 tons) of waste, mainly plastic, from the beach.

They also cleaned 52 public toilets and planted 50 coconut trees.

Now cleaner than it was and heading in the right direction, the volunteers have vowed to maintain the momentum and Shah envisages restoring the beach to its natural lagoon state by planting thousands of coconut trees.

As testimony of the environmental impact of the clean-up, in March last year an Olive Ridley turtle laid her eggs on Versova beach.

Just three years after the initial clean-up began, and the removal of more than 12 000 tons of plastic waste, 80 Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings were seen leaving their hatch sites and heading towards the ocean.

South Africa has its very own beach cleaning, plastic waste reducing environmentalist in the form of Coastal Ghost, an NPO created earlier this year by Johannesburg resident Stefan Graunke.

Having launched the coastal beach clean-up campaign in Richards Bay, Coastal Ghost has implemented its one million bag challenge – to remove one million bags of trash between July this year and July next year – and has to date removed 997 671 bags from beaches and inland waterways. For more information on Coastal Ghost, look them up on Facebook.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:

WhatsApp – 072 069 4169

Instagram – zululand_observer