A Great Effort at Sungei Seletar Clean-up

Volunteers from Land Transport Authority, Pei Hwa Secondary School and individual signup participants arrived early at 8am at Sungei Seletar for International Coastal Cleanup Singapore 2011 on Saturday 17th September 2011.

Sungei Seletar is one of the most difficult places at which to conduct a cleanup. Firstly, there is no public bus service. Then there is the lack of shelters in case of heavy rain. Zero toilet unless you consider the tall bushes and shrubs fair game. The difficult terrain of rocky beaches threaten to sprain the ankles and ankle-deep mud near the mangroves and the tides cut off the returning path on the beach. Lastly the Trash Collection Point is far, far away.

Despite these challenging factors, enthusiastic volunteers cleaned up about 650kg of trash with the plastic (bags & beverage bottles)  comprising the bulk of trash out of this not-so-noticed spot of coast.

It was a great effort and much thanks to all volunteers who turned up to battle marine pollution that day.

1,208 plastic bottles at the first ICCS @ Sungei Seletar

18 Sep 2010 – Under a blistering hot sun, the first international coastal cleanup was conducted at Sungei Seletar. The volunteers who tackled this beach/mangrove shore were from Pei Hwa Secondary School’s NPCC & NCC units and the Australian International School. Well there was one more person – Independent sign-up Michael Wolstencroft, for whom the cleanup at Pasir Ris last week was merely an appetiser!

At Sungei Seletar Site 1, Pei Hwa collected around 370kg of trash and topping their list of items was 940 plastic beverage bottles (less than 2 litres) contributing to a total at both sites of 1,208! Michael alone was able to collect 80 bottles in addition to a bi-fold door and a fishing net!

The Australian International School who cleared a further 140kg of trash picked up a bowling ball – this was classified under “toy”; surely, no one was bowling along the beach! Oh and two car accumulators.

It was a tiring effort this last Saturday, but it was good to see a job done well. We are really glad the first dent has been made of the accumulated trash and we look forward to future cleanups at Sungei Seletar!

Lim Chen Kee,
Deputy Zone Captain,
ICCS Northeast Zone

A Penny of My Thoughts: the Pasir Ris Beach 6 cleanup with the “Independents”

It is dawn over Pasir Ris. We must be early as we are racing against the tide. Pasir Ris Beach 6 (a.k.a No Man’s Land) will disappear under the rising seas by 11am.

Beach 6 is “No Man’s Land” not because no one is visiting it. But rather, no one is looking after it – even the few who visit do not take care of it.

Trash, mostly plastic bags and food wrappers, are scattered all over the beach and buried beneath a thin layer of sand. It is astounding to see such an amount! I wonder what it will take for visitors to the beach to bring their trash out to nearest bin, a minute’s walk away. Or for people on the adjacent lands to bin their trash instead of letting is fly away into adjacent waters.

My spirits were uplifted by the excellent job done by the Independent Sign-ups. Many thanks to Valerie, Jyothi, Subbiah, Boon Wee, Mindy, Mike, Swee Gek, Vivien, Yi Yong, Nicole, Pei Ern, Jia Hui, Jasmine, Sim Hong, Noemie, Heather, Anand, Kiat and Emma – they bent their backs with volunteers around the world to do their part for the planet!

The 21 of us collect, categorised and removed 360kg of debris in two hours. We did our best and know that we contributed to efforts to conserve marine life.

The site was just too dirty for us to finish. Even as we left, yet another plastic bottle floated in with the tide……

But we will be back, with even more help, once again.

Lim Chen Kee
Deputy Zone Captain,
ICCS Northeast Zone

[Ed’s note – Independents are individuals who sign up on their own, without an organisation and with little prompting for an event without fanfare, goodie bags, t-shirts or souvenirs and with only the promise of hard work and the satisfaction of their contribution. The ICCS Otters have a special affection for these individuals who find us each year, from all walks of life, to pitch in for a morning’s work.]

Water-Crossing at Pasir Ris Site 6 (aka Hidden Paradise)

Never did I think the water will come in so fast and so high. The wide stretch of beach that was there just  a few hours before the cleanup simply disappear under the water.

Water-crossing has to be done and here are some ways to do it:

1) The Boat

2) The sinking Bridge (Has it sunk?)

3) Plastic Bags turned Rubber Boots

4) The Flying Fox

5) The Mr. and Ms. Garang (Aka Down-to-earth)

Mr. Mud Lobster gave applause to the wonderful performance by the water-crossers.

α Φ Ω strikes again at Pasir Ris!

Alpha Phi Omega Alumni Association of Singapore struck again at Pasir Ris Beach 3 for their third cleanup with ICCS and as ever enthusiastic!

A group of 18  α Φ Ω combed their 500m of  beach and came back with 113kg of trash. They found the trash among breakwaters and the mouth of the Sungei Tampines all hidden from the public’s eyes.

Another 12 α Φ Ω entered Sungei Api Api mangroves and retrieved 16kg worth of trash – mainly plastic pieces once again!

View the results at the Beach & Mangroves.

We are looking forward to their ‘akan datang’ blog post!