I heard about International Coastal Clean Up Day on Saturday 19 September, and spontaneously decided to organise a Beach Clean Up in Camps Bay, the Cape Town suburb in which I live and in which I have been picking up litter for the past eighteen months, under the CAMPS BAY CLEAN name. While the turnout was lower than I had hoped for, the twenty volunteer locals managed to fill 25 bags with litter, between Glen Beach and the Tidal Pool in Camps Bay.

It was heartwarming to see in Social Media that we were not the only ones picking up litter on the beach on Saturday morning, but that the music group GOODLUCK did so too, as did Count Edward and Countess Sophie (right) of Wessex and their children at Southsea Beach in Portsmouth in the UK reported the Daily Mail, and Prince Albert of Monaco and his twins Jacques and Gabrielle in Monaco reported BUNTE magazine.

International Coastal Clean Up Day is held annually on the third Saturday of September, originating in Estonia in 2008.  It is held in 180 countries, with a total of 21 million volunteers, removing 100000 tons of waste.

In Camps Bay I teamed up with Rick and Tracy Jackson of #PICKITUP, in using our Social Media platforms to publicise our Camps Bay Beach Clean Up. We were delighted that our Sea Point and Camps Bay City Councillor Nicola Jowell announced that she would join us, and shared my post too. The 41 restaurant and its owner Giles Blanc also posted about it, and generously offered each participant a complimentary coffee. Jared Stein, owner of Camps Bay Hardware, donated 100 garbage bags for the Clean Up. Our biggest surprise and delight was that the NSRI volunteer team from the Bakoven station joined us too, cleaning Glen Beach in particular.

Many of our bags of litter contained cardboard outers used by homeless persons to sit and sleep on. Cigarette butts, straws, and ear buds were a large part of the litter which was washed in by the tide earlier in the day. Rick commented that it was sad that these had washed up from the ocean, and that the beach itself was not too littered, given the Covid Lockdown regulation which prohibited Beach walks or swimming for almost five months.

Giles was so excited about the success of the Beach Clean Up that he wants it to happen regularly, and wants to incentivise the clean ups by volume of litter collected in exchange for meals at his The 41 restaurant. I will work with him on a monthly program of Beach Clean Ups.

CAMPS BAY CLEAN: Cell 082 55 11 323 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CAMPS-BAY-CLEAN-105872617932277/

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide, CAMPS BAY CLEAN. Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide

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