Features
Hundreds Join the International Coastal Clean-Up in Noveleta, Cavite
(Cavite, Philippines)
In a gesture of solidarity with the global call of the Ocean Conservancy to clean up the world’s beaches and to protect the fragile marine resources, about 400 volunteers from all walks of life trooped to the shoreline of the Municipality of Noveleta, Cavite to participate in this year’s International Coastal Clean-up organized by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), the Municipality of Noveleta headed by Mayor Boy Alvarez and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office of Cavite.
The International Coastal Clean Up (ICC) was established in 1986, when a staff person from the Ocean Conservancy decided to take some assertive action to clean the litter from the shores of South Padre Island, Texas. In 3 hours, 2,800 Texans picked up 124 tons of trash from 122 miles of coastline.
This year’s clean up in Noveleta started at 6:30 am and in the course of the day the volunteers cleaned approximately 1km of shoreline. The volunteers where divided into five areas for an organized clean-up including segregation and documentation of all collected garbage and debris.
The tons of assorted garbage and debris collected by the volunteers are no longer left to litter the local shore. Some of the items collected and the length of time it would take to bio-degrade if they had been left in place are detailed below:
ITEM – LENGTH OF TIME TO BIO-DEGRADE
styrofoam - non-biodegradable
tetrapacks - 5 years
plastic bags - 10-20 years
leather shoes and sandals - 25-40 years
nylon fabric - 30-40 years
aluminum cans 50-100 years
assorted bottles - non-biodegradable
sanitary pads and diapers - 500-800 years
Jhun Servano, ICC Coordinator and an intern at IIRR shared his hope that the event not only highlights volunteerism but also emphasizes that environmental clean-up should be a moral obligation for everyone. Servano further added that this experience shows people that while throwing out or littering domestic waste may seem easy, the collecting, segregating and clean up of it is an arduous task. He also asserted that cleaning trash from the coastline is a small action that anyone can take and it has a huge benefit - reducing vulnerabilities of the coastal resources and communities to pollution.
Participating agencies and organizations in the 24th ICC in Noveleta included: the Municipal Government of Noveleta (Offices of Agriculture, the Civil Registrar, Senior Citizens Affairs, Treasurer, Accountant, GSO, Mayor’s Office, Engineering, Assessors, MENRO, Health, MSWD, Budget, Sanguniang Bayan, MPDO, HRM, Local Gov’t Operation Office and MCDC); the Department of Education’s District Office, Noveleta Fire Station, San Antonio 1 Barangay Council, San Juan II Barangay Council, Sta. Rosa 1 Barangay Council, Poblacion Barangay Council, San Antonio II Barangay Council, San Rafael 1 Barangay Council, Sta. Rosa II Barangay Council, Magdiwang Barangay Council, San Jose 1 Barangay Council, San Rafael 2 Barangay Council, Salcedo II Barangay Council, San Juan 1 Barangay Council, San Rafael IV Barangay Council, Noveleta Elementary School, San Juan Elementary School, San Miguel Elementary School, San Jose Elementary School, Salcedo Elementary School, San Antonio Elementary School, Bantay Dagat, Rural Improvement Club Center, Noveleta PNP, Noveleta Asin Jaycees, Noveleta National High School, Salcedo 1 Barangay Council, San Jose 2 Barangay Council, San Rafael 3 Barangay Council, University of Santo Tomas-Manila Chemical Engineering Department, Cavite Camera Club, the Red Cross and the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction.
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