Solid waste in coastal clean-up

Local beaches continue to be heavily polluted. Last week in an international annual coastal clean-up programme, 7000 pounds of trash were collected on Salybia beach alone over a three mile area. The 18th annual International Coastal Clean-up, the largest one-day volunteer event for cleaner oceans, continues to grow and in Trinidad and Tobago, Solid Waste Company Limited has this year taken the lead in the exercise when scores of volunteers on the Maracas, Salybia and Chagville beaches along the northern, eastern and western coast lines participated in the clean-up exercise. On the third Saturday in September, hundreds of thousands of people across the world from over 117 countries and all US states spent a minimum of three hours combing local beaches and waterways collecting the trash that pollutes the local waters, harms marine life, hampers tourism and poses health risks for beach-goers. The International Coastal Clean-up kicked off Coast Week 2003 on Sunday last.

This year’s clean-up was successful according to Waldorf Yearwood, a director of SWMCOL and coordinator of the programme. Yearwood stated that in the clean-up, volunteers collected over 200 pounds of trash consisting of cigarette boxes, cigarette stubs, clothing, fishing lines, plastics, food receptacles, food wrappers, bottles, underwear, baby diapers, six pack rings, footwear, fish nets, discarded fishing lines and cooking debris. Yearwood also indicated that with assistance from The Ocean Conservancy Headquarters in Washington, volunteers recorded the garbage according to description and sent it to the US where the status of beaches worldwide are determined.