When Zoë Prinsloo, founder of Save a Fishie, completed her 91st beach clean-up on Monday 18 July at Milnerton Lagoon, she realised that since she organised her first clean-up in 2016 the total litter collected stands at an incredible 9,4 tons.
“My first beach clean-up was when I was about 10 years old and the first one I organised was when I was working on my Protea Award for Rangers (Girl Guides). I then founded Save a Fishie officially in August 2017. Since then I have done 91 beach clean-ups and have removed 9 401 kg of litter off our beaches,” she says.
When she and her group arrived at the Milnerton Lagoon to a beach looking fairly clean, as the City of Cape Town was also on duty on Mandela Day, they had a quick briefing, handed out her upcycled billboard bags and reusable gloves and went off to clean.
“Not too far from where we began cleaning we were horrified to find a stretch of beach in front of Leisure Bay to be riddled with litter! Covered with micro-plastics, bottle tops, straws, earbuds, sweetie pie wrappers, nurdles and just rubbish! We literally had to rake up the litter into piles and scoop it up. We picked up a total of 251 kg of litter on the day,” Prinsloo says.
She is wondering which she’ll reach first, 100 beach clean-ups or 10 tons of litter. “I’m thinking 10 tons!”
She says every week she goes back to the beach and the litter is back. “Over and over again the ocean spills out litter on the beach and even though we need to find solutions at the source, the ocean is littered with plastic. Every time she (the ocean) spills it onto the beach we need to try to get as much off the beach as possible before the tide takes it back out again. This is a thankless, tiresome job that often feels like it’s in vain, but I can’t give up.
Prinsloo invites people and companies to get involved, either through organising a corporate beach clean-up or through donations towards her organisation – financial to help with future clean-ups and environmental projects, or goodies for the volunteers like drinks, donuts, and hampers. She also encourages the public to join in on clean-ups. “I love it when someone walks past, sees what we are doing and asks ’can I help?’ “ she says.
Prinsloo thanked Krispy Kreme for donating 50 donuts as well as the members of Century City, WWF, Rosebank College, the children from the SAF Brooklyn Clean-up Crew and all the other volunteers that joined them on Mandela Day. “Many hands make light work!” she says.
Companies, organisations and schools that would like to organise a beach clean-up through Save a Fishie or anyone who wants to volunteer at the regular beach clean-ups can email Prinsloo at info@saveafishie.co.za or find her on Facebook at Save a Fishie.
