Beach clean up

Over 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans each year. Almost 86% of this waste flows via various Asian rivers into our oceans. Due to the geographical location, the currents and the numerous small islands, a huge amount of (plastic) waste ends up on the beaches of West Flores and on the coastlines of the islands in the Komodo National Park, Indonesia.

Open Seas helps MBRC the ocean to make the world a cleaner place and sponsors beach clean ups

In 2021 MBRC the ocean has set up three permanent Cleaning Hubs, one Hub in a village on West Flores and two Hubs on two islands in the Komodo National Park. Three different projects are being managed through these Cleaning Hubs.

Clean up Pagarang

The clean up was Saturday 17 July 2021. 543 kilos of recyclable plastic waste and 70.5 kilos of non-recyclable waste were collected, making a total of 613.5 kilos of waste that day. The local population was very enthusiastic and came in large numbers to participate in the clean up.

To begin with all the local households are provided with garbage bags, to store their daily waste. Wheelie bins are placed on central places in the villages and on the islands, for the population to deposit their daily waste in.

In addition an education program for both adults and students has been developed to create awareness of the environment, recycling and sustainability. Furthermore each Friday a Beach Cleanup event is organised for the locals to participate in cleaning up the current pollution on their beaches.

All the waste from the wheelie bins and beach clean ups is saved in a storage and transported, as often as necessary, by a freighter to Java, where the nearest certified recycling company is situated. We expect the waste processing and recycling to grow from 10% to more than 80% in one year from the start of the project.