FALSE BAY | Runner-up: Best front pages, Local Media Excellence Awards
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The Beach Co-op hosts many clean-up initiatives each year. PHOTOS: THE BEACH CO-OP | FACEBOOK
BEACH CONSERVATION
Priority projects to go ahead RACINE EDWARDES RACINE.EDWARDES@MEDIA24.COM @RAEEDWARDES
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which we call #PlasticFreeMzansi, is an intensive and focused media campaign that responsibly educates, inspires and informs South Africans about plastic,” Omardien explains. Part of their clean-up arsenal is the Dirty Dozen Cleanup™ tool, developed by Prof Peter Ryan from the University of Cape Town’s Marine Research Institute. It tracks the top 12 most commonly found plastic litter items and has been monitoring beach litter in South Africa since the 1980s to understand its impact on seabirds that ingest it. The tool has been integrated into all of TBCO’s activities, including the internationally-practised Plastic-free July campaign which they have adapted for the South African context. “In 2019, Twyg and TBCO partnered with WWF South Africa on #PlasticFreeMzansi to ask South Africans to pledge to refuse single-use plastic items, most notably earbud stems, chip packets and plastic bottles. A series of very successful beach clean-ups were
held. The campaign ended on Friday 31 July with a fantastic Green Carpet event sponsored by Pernod Ricard in Granger Bay. “We reached more than 630 influencers and volunteers at five beach clean-up events collected one ton of waste – 6 091 sweet wrappers, 5 511 lollypop sticks and 5 431 straws.” To amplify their message, TBCO hosts at least four Dirty Dozen clean-ups during the month of July. Other important projects include the Tidal Pool programme, New Moon clean-ups, and the Youth Beach Clean-up programme, among others. The Tidal Pool programme, which has been held for three years in collaboration with several partners to protect Cape Town’s tidal pools, noted a significant achievement. “Due to the efforts of many individuals and groups, the City of Cape Town has finally replaced its harmful cleaning practices with new protocols,” Omardien explains. V To assist TBCO, visit www.thebeachcoop.org/.
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espite not securing the win in the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s Marine Debris Prevention and Awareness Grant on Friday 26 February, local nominee The Beach Co-op (TBCO) will still push forward on their priority campaigns. The grant, according to the network’s competition page, “seeks to support research and conservation projects around the world relating to a massive and growing concern for ocean conservation: marine debris”. TBCO had to battle it out with 35 non-profit conservation initiatives from around the world. The winner was chosen through a count of votes. More than 18 000 people voted. In the end, the $5 000 (R75 605) grant went to Earthlanka, a youth-based organisation working on empowering youth to con-
serve the coasts and marine resources in the Indian Ocean. According to Aaniyah Omardien, founder and director of the initiative, they are working to keep South Africa’s beaches clean and to protect and enhance ocean health. “We believe that behavioural change is effected by individual awareness, emotional connection and enabled action. Our work, therefore, focuses on building an ocean-loving culture and is supported by scientific knowledge and lived experience. We celebrate the ocean and our relationship to and dependence on it through music, art and sporting events, as well as regular cleanups,” she says. Receiving the grant would have given TBCO the boost needed for their projects, one of which is the four-year-old annual Plastic-Free Mzansi campaign. “We have been hosting a Plastic-free July campaign annually for the past three years in collaboration with a non-profit organisation (NPO) called Twyg. The campaign,
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