A Beach Cleanup Day

I finally participated in my first organized beach cleanup! Going into it, I truly did not know what to expect, so I’m sharing all of my thoughts and experiences with you. It was an empowering and upsetting day all wrapped into one, but I’ll get into that in just a little bit.

So…what’s the point of a cleanup?

Sadly, there are over 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste estimated to be in our oceans, and about 15% of that ends up on our beaches. Participating in the beach cleanup truly helped change my perceptions and understanding of the severity. Sure, I was aware that overconsumption is a problem and single-use plastics are polluting our oceans, but seeing it firsthand and experiencing the overwhelming amount of micro-plastics on the beach was eye-opening. In a way, I felt defeated, as there were so many tiny pieces of plastic it was impossible to pick them all up, but doing a cleanup can help decrease the debris on the beach and the danger to marine life from ocean plastics. Getting involved in a beach cleanup is such a meaningful way to interact with your community and meet others interested in taking care of our planet too!

Our day started by taking the ferry from Hong Kong Island to Lamma Island.

Once we arrived we walked for about 10 minutes to get to the Lamma Power Station Beach where we broke up into teams and began our quest to clean up the beach.

Yes…you read that correctly. Lamma Power Station Beach.

You can see it here. It’s a coal and gas-fired power station directly next to the beach. It’s quite popular since it’s easily accesible, but I would be hesitant to get in the water if I’m being honest.

What is needed for a cleanup?

It truly was simple. We needed trash bags, gloves, water bottles, bug spray, and sunscreen. It would’ve also been helpful to have a strainer of some sort to pick up more of the microplastics, so that will definitely be added to the list for next time.

Once we were in teams, each member took a trash bag for a designated material (e.g. plastics, paper, metal, cigarette butts, and miscellaneous)

I got plastics…and found the most bizarre items. What can you identify from the picture?

*the most shocking items were the faux floral leaves, glow sticks, and a shoe sole

So how did it go?

We cleaned the beach for about 45 minutes and filled about 4 trash bags of various materials. The smaller team I joined cleaned about a 10x10 area of the beach and probably could’ve stayed in that area all day. We cleaned the surface level fairly well, but the second we ran our fingers through the sand and got to the next layer…more trash.

Once we gathered all the bags together, our group leader took pictures and noted everything we collected to submit on a data form (more details on that below) and then we disposed and recycled each item the best we could.

What we did next…

After we finished the cleanup we all went to this amazing vegan cafe, Bali Tyche, on the island, and I decided to cool off with this amazing bowl filled with bananas, peanut butter, chocolate, chia seeds, granola, coconut water, and cashew. It was delish and the perfect treat after a hot day in the sun!

Once we finished our lunch, we wandered back through the village to a more secluded beach to rest for just a bit longer before heading back home on the ferry to Hong Kong Island. The sign reads “enjoy the beach! but please give back For Mother Nature is under attack…! Pick-up 1 piece of rubbish from the shore Leave the beach better than before."

Here’s how to do a beach cleanup of your own

You can organize your own beach cleanup or even just do one solo. If you want to record and submit the data, an easy way to do it is here with this Volunteer Ocean Trash Data Form from the Ocean Conservancy. It’s a great way to log how much and what you pick up.

This was my very first beach cleanup, but I can tell you the formula for the day felt perfect. A morning cleanup on the beach (starting early to beat the heat and cleaning for an hour max was perfect), then recording and disposal of items, and nourishing our bellies and souls with a delicious meal. If I ever plan my own, this will be exactly how I do it!

This was the amazing group I joined for the beach cleanup. I can happily report I made some new friends, we left the beach a little more beautiful than when we arrived, and this won’t be my last cleanup! I truly had so much fun, be sure to invite me to your next one!