Coast KZN

Inside the Beachwood Mangroves at the Blue Lagoon in Durban. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

Litter at Blue Lagoon river mouth. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

Litter at Blue Lagoon river mouth. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

Litter at Blue Lagoon river mouth. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

Litter at Blue Lagoon river mouth. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

After the litter has been removed, this is how the river mouth looked. Picture: Facebook – Clean Blue Lagoon 

Durban- Volunteers aligned to the Clean Blue Lagoon team made a concerted effort to minimise the impact litter has on the oceans.

There were no stopping volunteers from cleaning up the Beachwood Mangroves and Blue Lagoon river mouth in Durban even though the CBL were celebrating their second birthday on Saturday. They collected between 450 and 500 bags of litter.

Dale Johnson, who coordinates the cleanups, said on average they collect 300 bags.
“This is a very very conservative estimate – we have been known to collect well over 1000 on some events. We take on average 1 (one)  CBL event a month. We had many more in a month in the 1st year. That would mean we would have collected an estimated 7 200 bags of litter,” Johnson explained.

He said that is a lot of rubbish and plastic that volunteers have stopped from entering the oceans. He pondered though on how much litter are we not stopping from entering the ocean.
“I’m relieved to say that at least my grandchildren can say that their ‘Pappy’ tried,” he said.

After heavy rainfalls litter flows into the uMgeni river from storm water culverts. During high tide, the litter makes its way onto the beach sands at the river mouth. When the tide subsides the vast amount of litter is exposed along the seashores.