1ST Margate's #Litterless
1st Margate Scout group decided to clean up a very popular stretch of beach and road. It is used by a lot of people exercising and is popular with the fisherman. This is part of our national challenge #LitterLess and we decided to see how big and far we could go. This area has an abundance of wildlife and birds and it is our responsibility to look after them. This beach is also popular with holidaymakers so we are wanting to encourage them to return for more visits.
All the Scouts, Cubs and Meerkats met up at the Uvongo Pier. As a group we then walked from Uvongo along the beach towards Lucian Beach. Everyone had gloves, some carried the black bags, and the journey started. There was lots of climbing and digging in the natural vegetation to collect as much as we could and alot was found along the tide mark. When the bags got too heavy and full we would leave them along the road for our trip back. We walked back along the road picking up anything missed.
As a group we cleaned up a 5km stretch. We made a difference for the wildlife in the area and it is litter that will not land up in the ocean now. The clean up not only affected the people that use the beach and road but it also improved the area for the people that live there. The hope is that with continued projects like this, it can only but help the tourism along the coast.
We saw for ourselves the amount of plastic and more importantly the amount of micro plastics that were found along the beach, which would have made it's way into the ocean. We also found nests of fishing line along the beach, lesson being that people need to be more aware of their actions. Next time it would be nice for this to be an community event as the more hands there are the better it would be. 25 full black bags of litter was collected #LitterLess.
