Article: A Clean Beach by Damian Azzopardi (Prep 6, Primary School)

Following the clean-up carried out by the Red Warriors and Water Explorers at Il-Ballut ta’ Marsaxlokk, Damian Azzopardi , a Prep 6 student, has written an article about this activity.

Well done Damian and all involved! 🙂

On Saturday, 27^th February, the Red Warriors group from St Aloysius College went to Marsaxlokk for a beach clean-up.  Armed with gloves, boots and big blue plastic bags, accompanied by teachers and parents, they spent a sunny Saturday morning filling up the bags.  Using a wheelbarrow, shovels and sieve they collected pieces of styrofoam (‘gablow’), small broken glass, long pieces of string embedded in the rocks that had to be pulled and cut, plastic cups, plastic bottle taps, plastic bottles, heavy chains, pieces of wood and a cushion.  There were also toothbrushes, teabags and plastic bags. The biggest surprise was a boat battery covered in green moss which everybody thought was a rock! Some items were embedded in the sand or entangled in the wire fence separating the beach from the grass so it took some time to pick up.

One of the students said that he really enjoyed the experience and a total of 130 Kg of waste were collected.  Students were worried that had it not been picked up, all this waste would have ended in the sea harming its creatures. They felt very proud of helping the environment but puzzled that most of the waste most probably came from people who used the sea most, as a living or as leisure.