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Saturday, June 23, 2018

Beach Cleanup #1 & #2

Browsing through my Facebook feed nowadays is quite depressing. Especially when I have many friends who are environmentally conscious and share sad articles on the state of our seas, rubbish killing animals, micro-plastics & fibres ingested by filter feeders, etc. 

These past few years, I have been concentrating much in studying and upgrading my skills in the very competitive field of data science, and been too long an arm-chair environmentalist. Last weekend I decided to just go to Punggol Beach to have a look at the state of rubbish, and tug along a plastic bag.


#Trip 1. It wasn't that bad, but far from good too. Some of the plastics have been left so long that barnacles have grown on it.


Look at this, the shoreline mark was littered with small pieces of degraded plastics. So many that its impossible to clear all.

So much rubbish :(

What I gathered in 15 mins. Plastic bottles, cups, bags, and many many pieces of styrofoam. From my first trip, I decided that yes, there's enough plastics and rubbish to warrant another trip. 

Some fishing going on here. 
#Trip 2. Collected 3 bags worth of rubbish. Scanned a wider stretch of the beach and realised that while there is evidence of contractors hired to clean the beach, there is more to be done for some areas. I shall be back again and better prepared. Had bought a small collapsible bucket, and will also bring a glove for safety reasons. 

No. Trips: 2
Total Bags of Trash: 4