BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE unflagging Beach Bunch hit Tungku Beach again yesterday afternoon to play their role as nature’s guardian by collecting 375.5 kilogrammes of waste strewn across the coast.

The Beach Bunch, a non-governmental organisation set out to free the beaches in the Sultanate from unsightly waste and raise the awareness of eco-friendly practices, had gathered a total of 78 volunteers for the cleaning campaign.

A total of 7.5 kgs of aluminium cans were collected, 51 kgs of plastic bottles, and 317 kgs of general waste, in and around a two by one kilometre area.

Several institutions such as Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College (Maktab Sains), Pengiran Isteri Hajah Mariam Secondary School, Swiss Hotel Apartments, The Energy Division Committee, Mashor Waste Management Sdn Bhd and Daikyo Environmental Recycling Sdn Bhd had played their part in contributing to the 78-strong voluntary eco-force.

Piloting a young but successful cleaning campaign, The Beach Bunch garnered a large fanbase of over 1,000 people on their official Facebook page.

Despite observing a fall in the amount of volunteers this month from last month, Rizan Latif, secretariat and co-founder of The Beach Bunch told The Brunei Times, there is less people this time round, less students, as exams under way.

Yesterday was the seventh clean-up that The Beach Bunch has conducted and although there are fluctuations in the number of volunteers from month to month, there is a steady establishment that is budding into a collective awareness, said Rizan.

The group conducted their last clean-up on April 25, with a staggering 872kg of waste collected in two hours at the Jerudong beach. A total of 148 volunteers joined the last clean-up.

The waste was segregated into different categories for records and possible recycling; including 730kg of general waste, 140kg of plastic bottles, and 2kg of aluminium.

Though these activities, Priscilla Boyd, marketing and public relations liaison officer of The Beach Bunch said, they try to relay the information of cleanliness and the impact on the environment to beach-goers, to teach picnickers to clean up and dispose their waste properly.

Boyd explained that the NGO was initially a collective decision among friends to clean up the beaches of Brunei.

“Now we are an actual registered society,” and people are willing to become members which totals a fee of $10 this goes towards the societies’ initiative to buy bin bags and recycling materials, Boyd added.

The Beach Bunch holds meetings every month to discuss pertinent issues pertaining to their objective and organise the monthly clean-up of a beach, “usually on the third Sunday of every month,” said Priscilla.

The Brunei Times

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