As a cool gush of air had blown past us on a winter morning in Chennai, our day started with the collection of trash from the beach stretch of Ashtalakshmi Temple in Besant Nagar. The poster released on the 6th of January brought 30 volunteers to the beach stretch. On 9th January by 7 am, with gloves tightened, and with sack bags in the hands, our volunteers were ready to pick up non-biodegradable waste from Chennai’s coast.
- Plastic and glass bottles were collected separately.
- About 15 sack bags were collected within 2 hours.
- The approx calculation of 1 sack bag to 8 kg makes sure that about 100 kg of Plastic waste and 20 kg of Glass bottle waste was collected from the stretch on the day.
We observed something positive that day. The quantum of trash had gradually decreased in the area thanks to our hard-working volunteers and support from the city administration which we noticed by the presence of GCC’s machine, which picks up trash from the soil on the beach. Prior information to Urbaser had resulted in the separation of the waste collected on the spot and was transported for recycling.
The clean up on the 4th Seaward Road Beach was no different from this. Taking place at the same time, this beach clean up saw close to 30 volunteers come together to clean Chennai’s coast!
- No of volunteers – around 25-30
- Totally 20 sack bags were collected in which 3 of the bags contains only glass bottle
- Each of the bag weighs around 10-12 Kg of trash. Approximately 240 Kg of trash was removed
Both the events ended at 9:15 am, and an ending orientation was given about the need for beach clean up helping marine life, eco tips and about E.F.I and it works for example ERASE, PLASTONE, GLASS WALL etc. For collection of trash, GCC’s Urbaser was informed before the event, and the garbage machine arrived on time 10 minutes after the event!
We thank all those who had joined us for the Beach Clean Up! We thank the GCC and the HCL Foundation for supporting this effort!
Volunteer for India and her Environment with E.F.I, Jai Hind
