Key takeaways
Items in daily life constitute the majority of the collected trash
The bulk of the collected marine trash was concentrated along the stretch between the nearby road and the coastline. Commonly, these include discarded items such as plastic bottles, straws, cigarette butts, cigar boxes, beverage tin cans, snack packaging, fishing nets, and plastic buckets.
Increasing awareness on practices that promote proper trash disposal and segregation could help mainstream behavior changes to reduce plastic litter in the environment.
Last August 26, the Eco Warrior Guide, or the AJYELN Brunei fellows spearheaded a beach cleaning campaign at Seri Kenangan Beach in Tutong, participated in by 17 representatives from Ma’had Islam Brunei school. The beach is located nearly 5 kms away from the school and can be reached by car for about 6-7 minutes.
The beach cleaning campaign lasted for an hour, beginning at 07:00AM and cleaned an approximate of 1km stretch of coastline. Armed with garbage bags, gloves, and rubbish tongs, the volunteers scoured the length of the shores, as well as reaching the nearest roadside, looking for trash.
During the cleaning campaign, significant observations were noted by the participants. The bulk of the collected marine trash was concentrated along the stretch between the nearby road and the coastline. Commonly, these include discarded items such as plastic bottles, straws, cigarette butts, cigar boxes, beverage tin cans, snack packaging, fishing nets, and plastic buckets. Cigarette butts were usually found near the roadside. This is despite the fact that a lot of trash bins are strategically located in close proximity. Within the 1km, the volunteers were able to gather 15 bags of rubbish, amounting to a total weight of 56.65 kgs.
Based on this beach cleaning experience, the volunteers observed that a significant portion of the collected trash are discarded food containers. While there were a lot of trash bins placed along the beach side, most of these are overflowing with litter and stray dogs tend to further spread the trash in the surrounding areas. Trash collection may need to be done more regularly to avoid overflow of uncollected trash, and a need for stronger awareness for beachgoers about trash collecting and segregating practices to instill environmental cleanliness.
The beach cleaning campaign is one of the activities currently being organized by the Eco Warrior Guides to actively engage students in Ma’had Islam Brunei school and in their local community. The activity was livestreamed and posted in the group’s Instagram page. For more updates on their activities, please follow their Instagram page for real-time updates.
