Coast KZN

All the recent heavy rain has washed up heaps of ‘trash and more trash‘ onto the coastline. Strangely, not even the disastrous floods that hit in April 2022 saw this amount of rubbish on the beaches, and the question being asked is where does it come from?

The Umzumbe stretch of beach left strewn with heaps of garbage.

However, caring community members have rallied together to do their bit to restore the beaches to their former glory. Clean-ups organised by various non-profit groups and individuals have taken place in the last week or so, and the results have been so rewarding. Saying this, back-breaking hard work and sweat has gone into collecting tons of plastic bottles, litter and all weird ‘bits and pieces’ strewn all over the beaches.

Amy Furniss of Umzumbe spent the last week cleaning the long stretch of unused beach over the Umzumbe bridge towards Hibberdene. “I’ve never seen so much plastic in my life. We picked up a total of 50 bags (about 150 kg) of rubbish. Two bakkie loads! It’s basically a deserted stretch of beach and has never been cleaned. There is still more old trash in the dunes which we need to collect in the future,” she said.

Last weekend, Tidy Towns Sea Park to Banana beach organised clean-ups at Banana Beach and Sea Park, while Tidy Towns Tweni tackled Umtentweni beach and collected many black bags of rubbish. Cindy Baker of Tidy Towns Sea Park to Banana beach thanked everyone for showing up and helping to make a difference.

“A special thanks to Zac Graham, who is our volunteer at Sunwich Port and Roenel Kenyon, who is a volunteer at Banana beach.”

Roenel reported that after the rivers came down so much plastic washed ashore at Banana beach. “Everyday I have spent an hour picking litter, with the help of others, we have collected 30 bags of plastic and thousands of lollipop and earbud sticks. And it’s not the end yet.”

The stretch of beach between Sunwich Port main beach (by Oracs) and Banana beach is still in a terrible mess and the community is called to help Zac who is trying to collect the debris. He is usually down at the beach in the morning, if you would like to join him.

Ruby Solomon (left) and Yvette Mathonis of Port Shepstone Girl Guides help clean Sea Park beach.

If you are heading to the beach, please remember to take a bag to pick up any rubbish lying around, as every bit helps to keep our suburbs and beaches clean.

The Rotary Club of Port Shepstone is hosting a beach clean-up at Tweni beach this Saturday at 12:00. Bring gloves and bin bags. Everyone is welcome to join the bring and braai afterwards. Contact Dee on 071 8662129.

For more clean-up photos, see online article.