TechnipFMC volunteers with their haul on International Coastal Clean-up Day.
IN conjunction with International Coastal Clean-up Day (ICC), an annual nationwide beach clean-up effort was conducted over 394km of coastline around Malaysia.
Reef Check Malaysia coordinated the massive campaign which involved 9,129 volunteers, of which 9,065 handled the clean-ups on land while 64 divers undertook clean-ups underwater.
A staggering 24,301kg of rubbish was collected throughout September.
Of this, 300,183 items were collected.
The most common item disposed of were cigarette butts at 55,100 pieces while plastic bottles came in second at 44,706, followed by 34,673 plastic or foam pieces smaller than 2.5cm.
These small plastic pieces, also known as microplastics, are most worrying as they can be ingested by marine mammals.
“Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, items made from plastics were the most commonly found during our clean-ups,” said Reef Check Malaysia general manager Julian Hyde.
“Plastics do not degrade easily and can be floating in our oceans for decades before ending up on our shores,” he said.
The last physical ICC coordinated by Reef Check Malaysia was conducted in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were slightly relaxed.
In 2021, in light of the pandemic, Reef Check Malaysia held a home-based four-week campaign.
The weekly challenges included learning not to use single-use plastic bags, combating food waste, and sorting at the source – at home.
ICC is a global effort that has been running for over 35 years.
Around the world, volunteers work together to clean beaches and waterways, as well as raise awareness about the seriousness of the marine debris issue.
This year’s campaign was also made possible by sponsors such as TechnipFMC and Primer Group.
TechnipFMC employees and family members participated in beach clean-ups in Johor and Melaka and collectively removed 1,405.127kg of rubbish in one day.
Besides participating in a beach clean-up in Selangor, Primer Group also sponsored evouchers for all volunteers and drink flasks for the top three teams that collected the most trash.
“We are proud of fellow Malay-sians who have come out to clean up for this year’s ICC campaign,” said Reef Check Malaysia programme development manager Theresa Ng.
“This shows that there is growing awareness on the issue of marine debris,” she said.
