MORE than 400kg of waste was removed yesterday as part of a clean-up campaign at Arad beach.
Carpets, wooden planks, plastic and even tree branches were among the garbage collected by a team of volunteers.
The initiative was organised by Cleanup Bahrain as part of its ongoing mission to ensure Bahrain’s beaches remain free of waste.
Mission
“We had a good turnout with close to 50 participants of different age groups taking part in the beach clean-up,” said Cleanup Bahrain co-founder and president Ali Al Qaseer.
“The volunteers removed old carpets, old wooden stuff and tree branches.”
He told the GDN the operation was conducted in co-operation with the municipalities, and a total of 412.5kg of general waste was collected.
“The general waste collected was sent to the landfill and we are grateful to our team of volunteers for a good job.”
Mr Al Qasser said last year an average of 500kg of waste was collected during several of their weekend beach clean-up campaigns.
“We now seeing construction waste dumped in the sea and our message to the community is to work together to raise environmental awareness.”
Volunteers in the past have removed shoes, underwear, toilet seats, diapers and plastic from the different beaches.
The GDN previously reported that by 2050 Bahrain’s waters are estimated to carry more plastic than fish.
Supreme Council for Environment chief executive Dr Mohammed Bin Daina also said in 2017 that an estimated 99 per cent of sea-birds will have ingested plastic.
Ecosystem
According to global figures, more than eight million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean every year, which is equal to dumping a garbage truck filled with plastic waste every minute.
This is costing at least $8bn in damage to marine ecosystems around the world, with up to 80 per cent of all marine litter made of plastic.
sandy@gdn.com.bh
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