Super Women Save the Ocean

"Whether we work alone on a deserted beach or with a small group of our friends, we have the knowledge that we are part of a larger congregation. Our statistics join those of others in far-off places we may never get to visit"

Judie Hansen

Photo by Amelia L

The weather was unpredictable at first when we were driving from Kuala Lumpur. On the road, there was drizzling just a moment. We were hoping the weather would be better once we were there in Pantai Morib. Alhamdulillah, we were blessed by sunshine surrounded by the cool breeze air. All praise goes to all the volunteers when they were willing to wake up early on Saturday morning while they supposed to just relax at home. We were gathered at Dataran Pantai Morib while waiting for others to arrive. Since they are all my friends, I took this chance to catch up new stories about them.

It has become a small reunion for us. We want to introduce our superwomen volunteered to save the ocean that day. Overall we had 9 volunteers including a little Medina.

1. Sara - My ex-uni friendship
2. Mizah - My ex-uni friendship
3. Aina - KKS CGKL (Kelab Kebajikan Dan Sukan Cawangan Guaman KL)
4. Zahirah - KKS CGKL (Kelab Kebajikan Dan Sukan Cawangan Guaman KL)
5. Syamimi - KKS CGKL (Kelab Kebajikan Dan Sukan Cawangan Guaman KL)
6. Mariah - Sara's friend 
7. Medina - Mariah's daughter. She is super young volunteer among us, 1 year and 4 month
8. Amelia - The best photographer on earth!

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Surprisingly, we are all ladies! There we go, the caption described it well "Super Women Save The Ocean". However, we had another VVIP guest for today beach plogging. Previous beach plogging in Pantai Remis we had Manja The Cat as the VVIP guest. This time we had a little young adorable baby girl, Madam Medina. She is just 1 year and 4 months. Medina was joining our beach plogging with her mum. This kind of activity is kids and family friendly. While kids able to connect with nature they also can learn about the importance of protecting the ocean from plastic pollution. It's good for their growth and learning progress. It could inspire them to be a responsible steward of God and preserve the God's creation for future generation. Many parents have participated beach cleaning activity with their kids worldwide.

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

We called it beach plogging because it is a combo set of 3, beach sightseeing + pick up trash + jogging. We all knew plogging trend derived from Sweden. A craze fitness between pick up trash and jogging. We combined with beach sightseeing so that we can promote this movement about the importance of protecting our ocean from trash and plastic pollution. This activity is good for our mental and physical health as well. The feeling is devastated to see our ocean polluted by tremendously single-use plastic every year. Every year more than 8 tons of plastic goes into our ocean. The figure is huge and it is increasing until one prediction statement says there will be more plastic than fish by 2050. We should act from now. As much as possible keep increasing the awareness to the public. The power of change is in our hands. Everyone can initiate beach plogging whenever you are on a beach vacation. Get fit while picking up the trash. More or little you'll help to have a clean beach. We want a clean beach, right? Why not it starts with you. Small act count!

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

Photo by Amelia L

All the volunteers are super excited and ready to pick up the trash! The timeline was set from 15 minutes for trash collection. However, it was continuously up one to two hours until our trash bag was finished. It wasn't a good sign thou we need more trash bag to be able to save the rest. Imagined, not even goes up to 15 minutes our trash bag was filled. Wow! We can say there was SO MUCH TRASH scattered on Pantai Morib. Most trash is among the single-use items. They were probably dumped by the beach visitors and trash that wash away from ocean waterways to the beach. Inexpressible feeling looking at those trashes. We do what we can depend on our capacity. But there was more trashes cannot be saved in Pantai Morib :(. After we have collected around one to two hour, we decide to sort it out according to the category of trash. Roughly 20 kg of trashes were saved. The data of trash collection is contributed to the Clean Swell apps. We have found:

78 Cigarette butts
1 Fishing gear
98 Plastic bags
42 Food wrappers
19 Containers (plastic)
7 Containers (foam)
3 Beverage cans
66 Bottle caps (plastic)
120 Bottles (plastics)
5 Bottles (glass)
35 Cups, plates
18 lids
39 Straws
9 Utensils
122 Plastic / Foam pieces
13 Personal hygiene (drypers)
73 Other trash

We don't count how much trash we have collected, but how much people we could reach and inspire. When multiple billion people having the same mindset it will totally rock the world. Let's end the age of single-use plastic.

7 April 2018 | Beach Plogging 4.0 Pantai Morib