BAYBAY CITY, Leyte – To continuously promote the protection and restoration of the environment.
TARSIER together with 21 other student organizations conducted the International Coastal Clean-Up (ICC) Day in the VSU Beach on September 21, Saturday.
Around 150 volunteers participated in the event gathering about 39 sacks full of non-biodegradable wastes weighing nearly 350 kilograms according to TARSIER.
The report added that 4,209 plastic/foam pieces, 2,849 food wrappers, 1,371 cigarette butts, 1,293 plastic bottle caps, 822 plastic straws and 400 pieces of fishing gears were found.
The said clean-up utilized the Ocean Trash Data Form from the Ocean Conservancy. The data obtained will be stored for reference using the Clean Swell mobile app.
The ICC is a worldwide campaign started more than 30 years ago with the common goal of collecting and documenting trash littering the coastline. It is held every third Saturday of the month.
Allen Gil, TARSIER's Vice-president for External Affairs told Amaranth that, "Coastal clean-upd are only band -aid solutions. We need strict and concrete institutional regulations that formulate the proper management of wastes." "VSU has a lot of strides in that department, but the result of our coastal clean-up implies that there is still so much more to be done," he said.
"I hope that our current VSU administration would support these kinds of youth-led activities more and allow more avenues for us to inspire genuine environmentalism and mobilize impactful action among other students as well as the youth outside the VSU community," he added.