Almost two and a half tons of waste collected in half a day on Malindi beach, from the Ocean Beach Resort to Jacaranda Bay, passing through Silversand and Mayungu: the figure is significant and if on the one hand we are proud to announce it, for the work that the community of the town has managed to do with the Kenya Wildlife Service and environmental associations on the International Day of Beach Cleaning, on the other hand is an alarming fact, because every day more or less collecting you could have this sad result.
That the problem is now perceived as a threat not only to tourism, but especially to the environment, health and the future of the marine habitat of the entire coast, is a fact.
On Saturday morning there was the highest ever participation in a cleaning event: the coverage areas were even seven, plus a group of divers who collected even at sea, in the area of the Marine Park of Malindi. The result is 2 tons and 387 kg collected separately (plastic bottles that will be recycled) of which just under a ton in the city beach alone from the Ocean Beach Resort to the pier, 423 kg from the pier to Baobab, 325 kg from Coco Beach to the Marine Park.
The rest is divided between the Kivulini, Leopard Beach Point, Mayungu and Jacaranda Bay areas, where 262 kg of waste was collected, most of it plastic.
During the cleaning exercise thousands of toothbrushes, hundreds of packages of yoghurt and confectionery were found, as well as plastic accessories of all kinds, audio and video tapes (which no longer exist but obviously no one can dispose of) and packages and items that clearly refer to products used in boats, such as plastic bags for freezing on board. Product packages have been found with an expiry date as far back as 1980. As far as Malindi is concerned, and not just the "global challenge": a lot of plastic bottles are made of Kenyan labels, this means that we are the ones that disperse them in the environment. From here, the educational process and example that we launched at the level of the Malindi Green And Blue movement must continue with even more vigour and in this context it was important, on Saturday, the participation of many managers and members of the board of the Municipality of Malindi, as well as of course that of the tourism sector, from Jacaranda Resort, to The Lawfords, from Tamu Beach to Leopard Point, from the Casino to the PlanHotel group, from Scorpio Villas to Kilili Baharini, Cozy Point, Billionaire and others.