KUALA LUMPUR, 10 SEPTEMBER 2022 – The International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) is taking place this September. Every year volunteers around the world will come together to clean our beaches and waterways of trash. This global effort has been running for more than 35 years.  

In Malaysia, this campaign is coordinated annually by Reef Check Malaysia, a non-government organization (NGO) working towards the sustainable management of coral reefs This year's campaign #ICCMY2022 is supported by one of the partners, TechnipFMC, which cleaned up two beaches – Pantai Pengkalan Balak, Melaka, and Pantai Tanjung Balau, Johor. A total of 389 TechnipFMC employees and their family members participated in the beach clean-ups and collectively removed 1,405.127kg of trash in one day.  

TechnipFMC has made it their goal to support ICC this year to take greater environmental responsibility amongst the employees, particularly on proper waste management. TechnipFMC also encourages employees to contribute to the community they work and live in.  

TechnipFMC’s volunteers at Pantai Pengkalan Balak, Melaka

"TechnipFMC is focused on making a long-term, positive impact in the communities where we live and work through active engagement and initiatives. Our iVolunteer initiative encourages TechnipFMC employees to volunteer their time towards social causes that impact the communities in which we live and operate”, said Vimi K Venugopal, TechnipFMC Malaysia, People and Culture Director.

"We have chosen to participate in this year’s ICC as one big TechnipFMC Malaysia family, activating employees from 2 separate locations to clean-up beaches near them." 

TechnipFMC’s volunteers at Pantai Tanjung Balau, Johor

The last physical ICC coordinated by Reef Check Malaysia was conducted in 2020 when the restrictions were slightly relaxed. According to Reef Check Malaysia's ICC 2020 Report, with the help of 3,500 volunteers from all over the country, more than 11 tonnes of trash were collected from over 200km of coastline. A total of 24,493 plastic bottles were collected throughout September 2020. 

Waste composition from ICC in Malaysia in 2020 

In conjunction with this year's ICC, the Ocean Mall initiative will be launched to change consumerist trends into conservation trends instead. Clean-up volunteers, especially divers conducting underwater clean-ups, will go "shopping" for trash and post their finds on social media using the #OceanMall and #ICCMY2022 hashtags. 

Although the majority of the beach clean-ups took place on the 10th September, the public can still volunteer to participate in ICC anytime this month. For more information, please contact cleanup@reefcheck.org.my.   

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