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Plastic bags strewn across the sands, half-eaten ice cream sticks dug into sand castles are a familiar, if unwanted sight.
Come 19 June, Chennai’s beaches might not look like that anymore, as the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) is hosting the Chennai Coastal Cleanup. They hope this will metamorphose into “South India’s biggest clean up drive”.
In its seventh edition this year, the Chennai Coastal Cleanup was initiated by Peter Van Giet to create a ‘strong environment about the negative effects of plastics on the oceans’.
The Chennai Coastal Cleanup holds the Limca Record for maximum garbage collection, with 5584 volunteers collecting 36.7 tonnes garbage along a stretch from Marina to Kovalam in 2013.
Beach cleanups in Chennai have always been a one-day affair. However, this Chennai Coastal Cleanup promises to be more than that.
From cleanup treks to storytelling sessions for children, the CTC has conducted a variety of activities to spread awareness about the Chennai Coastal Cleanup.
Having cleaned beaches for over seven years under the Chennai Coastal Cleanup banner, the CTC realised that there has been no change in the garbage situation in the city.
Taking this appalling number into account, the group launched the #garbageoverload campaign two months ago.
CTC has also been spearheading a series of campaigns across schools, raising the ethics of garbage segregation in classrooms, and trying to build awareness among children about the necessity of reducing through segregation and home composting practices.
One of the many campaign ideas from the group has been the ‘No Plastic’ challenge.
The challenge requires the nominated person to say no to plastic, particularly single-use plastic items by posting selfies while using reusable, non-plastic items for five consecutive days. On the fifth day, CTC recognises them as champions, allowing them to nominate five of their friends to take up the challenge.
Running parallel to the Chennai Coastal Cleanup, CTC is also organising ‘Indian Clean Sweep’ across 16 other cities in the country, including Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Puducherry and the Himalayas.
Meanwhile, the Chennai Coastal Cleanup will clean the 20-km coastal line stretching from Marina to Panaiyur in the outskirts of Chennai.
With 9 more days to go for D-day, or ‘C-day’ as they call it, the event has already drawn over 4000 registrations. And while the number might already seem a lot, the CTC is expecting the count to hit the 10,000 mark soon. “We are all set to gather over 50 tonnes of garbage across a 20 km stretch of beaches with 10,000+ volunteers,” says Dr Roopa.
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