KUALA LANGAT, 14 September 2022: In collaboration with Reef Check Malaysia, 42 volunteers from Dialog Group Berhad collected 152kg of rubbish at Pantai Batu Laut in Tanjong Sepat, Selangor in under two hours in the morning of 10 September 2022

All sorts of discarded and washed-up litter were collected, such as cigarette butts and lighters, plastic bottles, food containers, face masks, clothes, and a metal drum and then quantified to be entered in the Clean Swell app to contribute towards a global coastal and ocean trash database.

The most common items collected were small pieces of broken plastic and styrofoam (<10cm in size) scattered all over the beach. Quantifying them for marine trash data input was challenging as it was akin to counting grains of rice.

Volunteers also keyed in data on DIALOG ESECO's SisaLab app to organise the collection of recyclables to minimise what would end up in the landfill.
Julian Hyde, General Manager of Reef Check Malaysia, said: “As the national coordinator for the International Coastal Clean-up Day, this event with DIALOG is in line with our commitment to highlight the issue of marine debris, specifically plastic waste, which is a serious threat to marine ecosystems”.

“We hope to create awareness on how much plastic is discarded, but also how stubbornly it persists in our environment in small, degraded pieces which end up hidden among the vegetation or entangled in mangroves. We hope that participants will be more mindful of consumption and will take active steps in reducing and recycling waste”.

Other groups volunteering on the same morning included My Clean Beach with Boehringer Ingelheim and Standard Chartered Malaysia, with support from Majlis Perbandaran Kuala Langat.

Those interested to participate in beach clean events this month of September may contact Reef Check Malaysia at cleanup@reefcheck.org.my