Every week, 25 volunteers cover 17 kilometers of beach removing about 7.5 tons of litter per year - of which about 1.2 tons gets recycled. The partnership that provided funding in 2022 came to an end. Fortunately a local business has committed to covering 25% of the project's annual budget of $6,643. With your help, we are raising the other 75%. Our team of out of work youth and elders with a passion for conservation are counting on your support to keep plastic out of the Indian Ocean in 2023!
Plastic washes up on the pristine beaches and mangrove forests of Vilanculos with every tide. If it's not recovered, plastic stays in the ocean and breaks down into microplastic that is harms marine life and eventually enters our food-chain. As long as single use plastics are legal on this planet, we have to do what we can to keep them out of the ocean.
By engaging out-of-work youth and elders to clear waste from the entire coast of Vilankulo every Saturday, we keep about 7.5 tons of waste out of the ocean every year. They work in teams waking up early and walking along the beaches filling up sacks with every inorganic scrap they find. The filled sacks are collected in ParCo's pick-up truck and taken to the plastic center to be cleaned and separated - about 1.2 tons of the separated plastic and aluminum are recycled each year.
The problem of ocean plastic requires multi-layered solutions. Our work to keep beaches clean helps keep the oceans plastic out of the ocean, for the health of today's and tomorrow's marine life. Our work disrupts the leakage of plastic into the marine ecosystem and also spreads awareness about the importance of environmental stewardship that will help usher in policies to "turn off the tap" of single use plastics in our life time.
