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 (reprinted from Positive News magazine)
by Lizzy Grindey
Armed with black bin bags and fuelled with ecological zeal, 2,615 Hong Kong volunteers set out last autumn to remove rubbish from Hong Kongs beaches and raise awareness about a very dirty problem.
Picking up everything from cigarette butts to ubiquitous plastic foam boxes, and amassing over 10 tonnes of junk in the process, they joined a half million-strong crowd in over 80 countries participating in the Ocean Conservancys International Coastal Cleanup 2006.
 Local youth groups, divers and conscious citizens turned out at 53 Hong Kong cleanups from August to October, to get to grips with the trash and its impact on the ecosystem. They know that the marine debris is not just ugly, it can be deadly too. Washed up rope and i shing line is often a lethal trap for wildlife. Plastic packaging can pass on toxins to i sh, and birds can absorb chemicals from the cigarettes butts they often use to build their nests.
At the end of the day, the cleanups' haul (of 54 kilos per gazetted beach) amounted to a countless number of lives saved.
According to Civic Exchange, the main force behind the Hong Kong cleanup, the debris washed up on our shorelines was most likely generated by local beach goers, companies and factories.
Coordinator Thierry T.C. Chan hopes that the volunteers will become ambassadors that can help change attitudes in our society.
"Kids come out of the experience with much more than just a few bags of rubbish they see i rst hand the results of careless behaviour and the fact that solutions are within the grasp of each and every one of us," he said.
civic-exchange.org
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June 17 - 22 
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