PENCINTA
ALAM FEBRUARY 2019
GREEN
LIVING COLUMN
OF WHAT
USE ARE COMMUNITY CLEANUPS?
By Wong
Ee Lynn
Green
Living has been organizing and coordinating trail, beach and forest cleanups
since our inception in 2006. Nobody can dispute that volunteers who give up
their weekends to clean up natural spaces are doing an unselfish and
responsible thing. However, just how effective and useful are community
cleanups? Do they really help in reducing ocean plastic pollution and wildlife
deaths? Here are some quick facts:
CRITICISMS:
1. Critics
argue that public cleanups do not address the root causes of plastic pollution.
What we need to do is to reduce unnecessary plastic at source, design less
harmful products and develop better recycling processes.
2. David
Katz, the founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, which monetizes plastic waste by
turning it into a currency that helps some of the world’s poorest people,
likens the problem to an overflowing sink: “There is no point in mopping the
floor until you turn off the tap”.
POSITIVE
RESULTS AND BENEFITS OF COMMUNITY CLEANUPS:
1. Every
piece of litter that is taken away to be recycled or deposited in a landfill
means there is one less dangerous item for birds, turtles or whales to swallow.
Cleanups also restore these animals’ habitats.
2. In 2015,
Mumbai lawyer Afroz Shah started coordinating regular beach cleanups at Versova
Beach in Mumbai which saw thousands of volunteers removing over 13 million
kilograms of waste in what the UN has called “the world’s largest beach cleanup”.
In March 2018, around 80 olive ridley turtle hatchlings were spotted heading to
the sea from Versova Beach. The turtles had not been seen on the beach for
decades. The cleanup had turned the former litter-strewn beach into turtle
breeding grounds once again.
3. Community
cleanups also serve to educate. When volunteers see just how much plastic is collected,
they are often inspired to reduce their reliance on
single-use plastics, and, crucially, to spread the word to others. Tiza
Mafira, lawyer and director of the non-profit Indonesia Plastic Bag
Diet Movement, says beach cleanups give volunteers a clear sense of the
scale of the problem.
4. Cleanup campaigns often collect data on the litter found to
determine where it comes from and thus aid longer-term efforts to cut down on
marine plastic pollution. For example, the British Science Association and The Plastic Tide charity have asked the public to help chart plastic pollution by tagging items
captured by drone technology and aerial photos taken of Britain’s shores.
5. Community cleanups raise public awareness on the threat of plastic
debris more effectively than in less participatory public education programs,
multiple studies show. Volunteers say the cleanups make them more mindful of
how they dispose of their own disposables.
6. Community cleanups add to the growing body of knowledge about
where and how plastics travel across the seas and where they end up in the
greatest abundance. Findings from community clean-ups help to put
pressure on corporations to reduce waste and make their products less wasteful
and more easily and frequently recycled. Greenpeace, in partnership with a consortium
of environmental groups known as Break Free From Plastic, conducted an audit of
the rubbish collected from community cleanups and found that the brands of packaging most
commonly retrieved belong to 3 multinationals: Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle. After
these results were published, all three companies have since pledged to
reduce plastic waste by redesigning products to make them more recyclable,
reducing unnecessary plastic packaging, and increasing the amount of recycled
material used to manufacture their plastic products. Each company has set
targets for those goals that range from 2020 to 2030.
7. There
are economic and social benefits to community cleanups. If beaches and national
parks are covered with litter, tourists will not come. Community cleanups also draw
people closer together and create a sense of unity, camaraderie and belonging.
(Sources:
