Beach clean-up a Saturday habit
and the Boracay Young Professionals, Inc (Boracay Yuppies)
PEOPLE of all ages enjoy the beach. The white beach in Boracay is the most famous of all and is not immune to people’s abusive behavior. To protect the beach, the Yuppies thought of a sustainable solution: Making Beach Clean up a Saturday Habit. The local government is not at it’s best to tighten laws on beach littering prohibition, they cannot increase number of beach cleaners due to budget crunch, and the list goes on.
This project has been in existence since August of 2009. The beach clean up volunteers include the Boracay Young Professionals members, students from Boracay National High School –Main Campus and Manocmanoc Extension, and Lamberto H. Tirol National High School. During our school campaign with the students, waste management was an important topic of discussion. They were able to apply what they have learned during the beach clean up activities.
The major beaches of the island where we had our activities are at the famous White Beach, Bulabog Beach, Puka Beach, and Manocmanoc/Cagban Beaches. We hope to do a simultaneous beach clean up activity where all the beaches of Boracay are cleaned up in one morning for approximately two hours; residents and students of the three barangays in the island will be having their designated area of responsibility.
Several objectives of this project include: increase awareness about waste reduction among the youth, avoid littering of trash on the beach including cigarette butts, inform the youth about proper waste segregation and lobby to the LGU about the designation of smoking and non-smoking areas in the beach.
WASTES
According to ButtsOut, the number one trash problem on the beach is cigarette butts. Traditional butts are made of “synthetic polymer cellulose acetate” and never degrade, only breaking apart after roughly 12 years. Yet within an hour of contact with water, cigarette butts can begin leaching chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into the marine environment. And that’s not counting for the fact they also end up in the intestines of “fish, whales, birds and other marine animals”. An estimated 2-3 kilos of cigarette butt are collected by the Yuppies and volunteers in the white beach from station 3 down to the station 1 beach area.
Other major wastes found on the beach include: food and candy wrappers, plastic bags, plastic bottles, glass bottles, bottle caps and lids, straws and stirrers, beverage cans, tissue papers and paper boxes, food utensils (plastic), drift ropes (nylon). Hazard wastes and unusual wastes found on the beach include batteries, light bulbs, long and thin fluorescent lights, needles, used sanitary napkin and used baby diapers, needles and syringes.
After the beach clean up, our student volunteers are given snacks (bread and juice) in some of the Saturdays thanks to our sponsors (7 Stones, BLTMPC, Ms. Vicky Alvarez, JVG Agency, Boracay Navi, NGL Distributor and a lot more), they are also fortunate to have free ride to their homes courtesy of the BLTMPC.
After several months, we have seen other organizations adopting the Saturday habit including Bantay Bata Boracay, a committee under the BFI, and Philbikers Boracay Chapter (Islanders).
We hope to have more involvement from the community and you! Please join us in making Boracay a green destination. All for the love of Boracay.