Coastal Clean-up- Our First Project for the year 2019/2020

By Rtr.Sachini de Silva

Right now, eight million tonnes of plastic end up in oceans every year. The actions of just one of us seems to be trivial, but the knowledge of that there are hundreds and thousands of other people doing the same thing – that really does have an effect.

-          Sir David Attenborough

The Rotaract Club of the College of Chemical Sciences (RACCCS) hosted a clean-up on the 30^th of July 2019 at the Dehiwala beach under the main avenue of Community Services and sub avenue of Environmental Service. The Rotaract District 3220 Sri Lanka and the Maldives on celebrating fifty years of service plans to achieve fifty coastal clean-ups including river mouth cleanups in hopes of spreading awareness and connecting people through service. RACCCSS is exhilarated to have conducted a successful coastal clean-up project to cumulate to this cause.

The month of July to the young chemists of RACCCS was hectic, that was bustling with plans for their annual extravagant talent show, ‘Aura’ that was held on the 29^th. This year commemorated the tenth year of Aura, celebrating a decade of talented chemists that gave it all on stage to enthusiastic crowds. So, it was paramount to CCS that this year’s Aura was spectacular (and it was!). Rotaractors of CCS planned this beach clean-up throughout the month of July despite the hectic schedule , with the thought of the first month of the Rotaract calendar bare without any project was indeed inadequate.

RACCCS teamed up together to arrive to the Dehiwala beach at 8 a.m., on receiving permission from the Dehiwala Municipal Council. The wastes were collected into biodegradable bags, obtained free of charge from the Pettah marketplace. The waste was separated accordingly to biodegradable refuse, plastic, rubber and glass. A deserving lunch break was then taken at 11 a.m. and it was outright difficult to beat the tropical sunshine at midday in Dehiwala, so the clean up was resumed after 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. The bags were handed over to the Dehiwala Municipal Council afterwards.

Waves (Pun intended) of exhaustion, enjoyment and achievement was experienced by RACCCS upon conclusion of a successful project.

Even though the ideal goal of Sustainable Coastline clean-ups would be to ban plastic from the world completely, we are doing the best job possible to keep the beautiful coasts of this planet as clean as possible, one step at a time.

Viva la Rotaract!