Recce for Changi and Tanah Merah on 22 May

22^nd May, like another usual weekend days, was a busy day for the Eastern coastline of Singapore. The hustle and bustle of Changi Beach Carpark 1 welcomed Connie and me when we arrived. Apart from the tinkling bells of bicycles and boisterous talks from the beach-goers, the gay atmosphere was also filled with an exotic-sounding music from a Malay dance performance at one end of the beach, attracting crowds of curious onlookers. Connie and I, with the mission of recceing Changi and Tanah Merah, cycled around and only occasionally stopped to perambulate the seemingly clean shorelines and places inland to have a quick scan of the trash load and profile of Changi Beach. Here’re some trash we found.

 As expected, trash load at Changi Beach Park 1 & 2 (CP 1 to 5) is very low. Even for Changi Beach Park 3 & 4 (CP 6 & 7) where the trash load is higher, the type of trash is still fairly similar but in greater abundance. No daunting oil drums but just cigarette butts, broken Styrofoam pieces and plastic bottles.

                                      Trash at Changi Beach near Carpark 7

At Changi Beach Park 2, there was also some construction going on which is possibly to restore the shore.

From Changi Beach, we cycled to Tanah Merah to have a quick survey before the sun set. While Tanah Merah 1 & 2 are quite clean, Tanah Merah 5 and 6 are very filthy indeed. (See pic below) Unlike Chang Beach 1 & 2, these places don’t have frequent cleaning by contractors.

Filthy as they are, Tanah Merah still exudes beauty such that couples like the one in the picture below still come here and have their wedding pictures shot.

Also at Tanah Merah, we came upon the route which was used for Passion Run on that day and were suddenly inundated by runners in bright yellow.

This was just a snapshot of a day in a year of our Eastern coastline. With so many activities going on, it’s not difficult to imagine that a lot of trash is generated and being littered at the beach. While easy sites such as Changi Beach which do not yield magnificent results in terms of weight of trash or exotic trash as mangrove sites, they are important sites to us for the data we obtain tells us that the marine trash in Singapore is not mainly coming from our neighbouring countries but perhaps from within, much to the contrary of what many Singaporeans believe.