Winter has been and, whilst not yet gone, certainly left it’s mark on our beaches and coastline. A series of storms with little respite between hammered the Cape for what felt like months on end - stripping away sand, and pushing kelp and plastic high above our normal tide lines. On our traditionally sandy beaches along the Atlantic Seaboard, notably Sandy Bay, Llandudno and Camps Bay the loss of sediment is drastic and most visible. Further towards the city, the kelp and plastic is more noticeable, with Bantry Bay, Thermopylae and Saunders beaches covered in a delicious (not) mix of rotten seaweed and nano, micro, and macroplastics…
Kelp and plastic intertwined on the high tide mark. Photo. T Coles
The dynamic cleaning team Friends of the River Hout Bay had been tipped off about a large deposit of plastic waste on the beach in the far corner of Sandy Bay, far from the eyes of most. They had done their best to remove this accumulation but after two days and only a small percentage of the beach cleaned, turned to our steadfast allies at Sentinel Ocean Alliance in order to stage an EMERGENCY CLEAN! Sealand was only too eager to lend what support we could in marketing, manpower and product prizes to entice good citizens down to spend their Saturday with us. Suzuki Marine pitched in to provide more prizes and manpower, Table Mountain Park joined and the stage was set!
A beautiful day for mucking in and cleaning up! Photo T Coles
Saturday dawned beautifully, windless and sunny. A welcome change from our winter conditions, and one that was to last as long as the clean! We gathered in the Sandy Bay carpark where Friends of the River, Suzuki, Sealand and Sentinel worked together to welcome and register the lovely folks that turned out. SOAs advertising at Llandudno Primary School had clearly worked, as a slim majority of our cleaners were under 12, with parents in tow! Equipped with Sealand shoulder bags, their Parley gloves, and instructions to follow the path until they found the plastic, these kids dashed off behind Frank - who quickly found a treasure trove of waste tucked into the rocks along the way.
Frank of SOA filled his first bag in minutes Photo T Coles
Jasper of Sealand getting involved! Photo T Coles
We were surprised to find rocks, exposed for the first time in years, in places we’d only ever seen covered in sand. And surprised, again, when reaching the end of the beach, to find that what we’d assumed was kelp was not wholly organic. This was akin to the world’s most disheartening Easter egg hunt - below every bush, under every rock, tucked in every nook n cranny we found wrappers, polystyrene, lollipop sticks and more. The sand sieves, useful for separating and finding microplastics where there is only sand, became better as scoops - lifting entire handfuls of waste from amongst the kelp and sand. Fishing gear, abandoned or broken loose, wrapped amongst the rocks, and crates, drums and other large bits of polymer pushed through the sand. The orange crew from FOTRHB did stellar work (this being a return trip for them!) and together we managed to separate sand from plastic, organic from inorganic and fill our many bags!
Marguerite of SOA on a surprisingly rocky beach! Photo T Coles
Even our 4 legged friends pitched in to make this work! Photo T Coles
The return trip, laden with waste, was certainly more grueling than the excited walk there. Sandy Bay, whilst still accessible, is one of Cape Town’s more tucked away beaches and requires a bush walk of approximately 800m to reach the beautiful cove at the end. This path, easily skipped down in the cool morning, became a different beast entirely once we started pulling the (very heavy) waste off with us. Back and forth under the midday sun, our team pulled together and dug deep to get 151 bags - 100’s of kilos! - of plastic waste back to the car park where it was collected by Oceano Reddentes. This awesome organization is still counting individual pieces to provide a clearer picture of the type and distribution of these plastics, to enable us to better understand and prevent this waste from ending up in these places to begin with! Once sorted and counted, everything that can be recycled is!
Clean little waves had heads turning all morning Photo T Coles
All in all, this was a successful and powerful clean - although we had to leave some plastic behind due to time and capacity constraints, we made a big difference to this lovely corner of Cape Town and helped educate our children on the importance of responsible disposable, environmental stewardship and the power of community!
No better way to get out there and get involved! Photo T Coles
If you are interested in helping out, please join us on the 21st September (next Saturday) as we join forces in honor of World Cleanup Day and engage our entire Hout Bay community to champion clean spaces and warm hearts! See you there!
