Beach Clean Ups In The World Today

A Global Initiative

Beaches are attractions that are found all over the world; whether it's the preppy, raving Bondi Beach in Australia or the quiet, protected Plages Des Marinieres in the South of France, they exist in all forms. But with the prevalence of beaches we can also expect the presence of beach pollution. There are several global initiatives in place to mitigate the issue of beach pollution.

The main local initiative is conducted by a man named Afroz Shah. Afroz Shah’s admiration for the beaches is what pushed him to actively engage himself in beach cleaning up.

A lawyer from Mumbai, he is the leader behind the Versova Beach Clean up in Mumbai. Consequently he received UN’s top environmental accolade in 2016, the Champions of The Earth Award. Shah manually picks up the trash lying on Versova Beach, but that's not all he also teaches sustainable waste management to nearby villagers.

Afroz and his neighbour Harbansh Mathur, an 84-year-old, started this initiative after being frustrated by the waste that persistently washed up on the beach. At first - for a very long time - it was just the two men at work, however 8 weeks later two men asked to join and the project took up from then (Frantz).

International Coastal System

Another commendable global initiative is the International Coastal System. The organisation essentially holds beach clean ups in several countries around the world and especially in some of the most polluted areas. This organisation could be considered experts as their business has been running for the past 40 years. A specific initiative cannot be pinpointed because their projects include such a vast range - there is no one specific thing they do. Nevertheless, they combine science and policy to effectively protect the world's beaches and coasts. One of their most recent endeavours, is a project conducted in the Philippines (CEO).

Both these initiatives, along with many others all across the globe, function on the motivation created by the positive change they are making. Consequently, all of them also agree that no number of policies are even comparable to the change that is brought about by a hands on, direct involvement which is perhaps why all of these organisations carry out their projects in such a direct manner. Just as we are planning to do with the Shore Police Beach clean up. Just like many others, their work has inspired us. Our clean up also strives to be a hands on approach aiming to bring about the change of these very successful initiatives

Works Cited

CEO, Janis Searles Jones, and Emily Woglom. “About Us.” Ocean Conservancy, oceanconservancy.org/about/.

Frantz, Ryan. “How One Young Man's Efforts Resulted in the World's Largest Beach Cleanup Project.” YourStory.com, 12 Apr. 2020, yourstory.com/2020/03/young-mans-efforts-beach-cleanup.

Parker, Laura. “Beach Clean-up Study Shows Global Scope of Plastic Pollution.” Environment, National Geographic, 10 Feb. 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/greenpeace-beach-cleanup-report-highlights-ocean-plastic-problem.