A very important question to ask oneself.
Doing a Zero Waste to Landfill clean up takes a lot of extra time and effort. Incorporate the dirty dozen into it equals more time and effort. This is effort that is rewarded 1000 times over.
We now have stats of exactly how much of what we have picked up which can go to research projects to be shared with other scientists. Scientists who are working hard to come up with solutions to our plastic pollution problem.
Counting every item at a clean up using the dirty dozen method makes you painfully aware of what and how much of what we use and discard ends up back in the ocean. It is a life changing experience that makes you more connected to your environmental footprint. Separating everything that cannot be Eco bricked for recycling is also a huge eye opener!! It makes you think twice next time you discard something into the bin.
It seems pointless to us to clean a beach and send all the trash to Landfill.
Our landfill in Muizenberg is by the beach anyway. Leachate aside, birds eat the plastic at landfill and end up starving to death. That plastic ends up in the system again once the birds have disintegrated. Not to mention the wind which blows plastic back into the ocean from the landfill. Bird and fish populations are on the decline due to plastic pollution and it is up to us to do something about it.
So without further ado. Have a look at our stats from our clean up. Inspiring stuff to know that not only was this cleared from the beach but NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING went to landfill.
