In celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity, we headed to Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve with 50 enthusiastic members of the public for a fantastic Trash Bash environmental cleanup!

Credit: Rebekah Plath/Two Oceans Aquarium

Zeekoevlei is a wetland, a habitat of critical importance in Cape Town. Wetlands play many important roles in a healthy city, from supporting biodiversity and acting as a refuge for migrating birds, to serving as a safety buffer for flooding events. Wetlands are vital, and any damage or pollution we cause to them, inevitably affects everything downstream – including our ocean.

Credit: Rebekah Plath/Two Oceans Aquarium

Members of the local community collected 117kg of litter, mostly plastic. Litter in wetland locations like this is from a variety of sources, left behind by careless visitors, washed from upstream, or blown in from nearby streets. Without community action like this, all this plastic would eventually wash out into our ocean.

Credit: Rebekah Plath/Two Oceans Aquarium

Working with The Beach Co-op, the litter was categorised using the “Dirty Dozen” method for gathering data on the most common litter items. Usually, this is applied to beach and ocean litter, but the chance to do this in a wetland was an interesting opportunity to gather upstream scientific data.

Credit: Rebekah Plath/Two Oceans Aquarium

Phumza Jongihlathi of the Two Oceans Aquarium, and the organiser of Trash Bash, said that she was impressed by the difference that the day's volunteers made and that it reminded her of a Shiv Khera quote: "Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success." When we look at the positive environmental impact that even a small group of 50 people can make in two hours - imagine what we can all accomplish together!

Credit: Rebekah Plath/Two Oceans Aquarium

Thank you, everyone! See you at the next Trash Bash on 2 July 2022 - follow us online for details!