by Aimee Hoppe, Greenpeace volunteer:
On a beautiful, hot, sunny Saturday, we participated in the Annual International Coastal Cleanup at Bloubergstrand in Cape Town.
It started at 10:00 am and was well organised. We received bags, gloves and even sticks to grab the rubbish with. We patrolled the beach looking for litter and found mainly small pieces like bottle tops, cigarette butts and straws.
It was saddening to see how much plastic you actually find on a relatively “clean” beach.
I cannot think of a better place to be than on the beach and took the liberty of taking dips in the sea to cool off every now and then so it hardly felt like work at all and most of all, it felt good to be helping out.
We cleaned for a good two hours and at noon, we were offered vitamin drinks and participated in a group photo. It was announced that there would be a monthly beach clean which I thought was a fabulous idea and we were also welcome to suggest other beaches that we thought were in need of a clean up.
We hope to see you on a beach soon!