Heal the Planet: Phase 1

By Rtr. Teruni Perera

Coastal ecosystems are regions of remarkable biological productivity and high accessibility. Clean beaches and oceans have always been an important part of our lives since they provide habitat and nesting grounds for important ocean wildlife. Therefore it is fair to believe that beach clean-ups directly contribute to creating a healthier beach environment as well as demonstrate the value of protecting and preserving the region’s coastline. 

‘Heal the Planet Phase 1’: The Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid City has taken an initiative to do productive campaigns to support, protect, and nurture the environment all in their own way! 

So as the first phase we have started it from a beach.

We all know Sri Lanka, the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’ is famous all around the world for her gorgeous golden beaches and waters. But that beauty seems a sight of the past if one is going to travel along the coast of Wellawatte. The view is ruined by mounds of trash, plastic bags and single-use water bottles, old clothes, unloved toys and even slippers.

But after all the researches we have gone through we understood that beach clean ups add additional polythene trash bags to the environment.

Every year thousands of volunteers will participate in an annual trash clean-up campaign. This results in millions of polythene trash bags being added to the environment.

So in this phase we came to a conclusion. The theme for the first phase was ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle’. We used gunny sacks instead of polythene trash bags and in our next clean up campaigns we will reuse them. 

The committee members of the project supplied the equipment, gloves and gunny bags.

Volunteers from the Rotaract Club of ANC also helped us with this project and many sudden volunteers who were in the beach premises helped us out with collecting garbage.

It’s an awesome team effort and one that results in hundreds of kilogrammes of marine debris being collected, sorted, categorised and properly disposed. We’ve covered a distance of 1 km in the Wellawatte beach.

On our first beach clean-up, at Wellawatte beach, 25 volunteers collected more than 100 kg of junk, including glasses, bottles, bags shoes, and endless small pieces of plastic and foam.

Overwhelmed by the reality of the issue? You should be, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference. Here at ‘Sustain-ably Simple’, we believe in the power of small changes so here’s eight things you can do to help:

1.  Swap to a bamboo toothbrush

2.Use a fabric tote bag when shopping

3. Say no to plastic straws

4. Buy a reusable water bottle

5.Give up chewing gum

6.Invest in beeswax wraps

7.Purchase loose fruit and vegetables

8.  Refuse plastic cutlery