BRUNEI-MUARA

ENVIRONMENTAL awareness among beach-goers is on the rise as evidenced during the Tungku Beach clean-up drive organised by the Beach Bunch yesterday.

The waste along the beach has been reduced considerably due to members of the public becoming more aware to keep the beach clean.

A total of 148 Beach Bunch volunteers collected almost half a tonne of waste at the Tungku Beach yesterday to commemorate World Environment Day.

The amount of waste was much less compared to the two tonnes collected during last April’s campaign. The slight drop of waste being collected can be attributed to efforts of the beach-goers to keep the beach clean.

Rizan Latif, President of Beach Bunch, told The Brunei Times that the volunteers had collected a total of 472 kilogrammes of waste. This is a welcoming sign.

The Beach Bunch had placed six rubbish bins at different locations at the beach May last year and also encouraged the beach-goers to use bins to dispose of the waste.

The volunteers comprising three schools and three private sector companies collected a total of 83 bin bags within two hours, said Rizan.

They comprised students from Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College (Maktab Sains), International School Brunei, International Graduate Studies (IGS) College as well as employees from private sector firms such as Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL), Standard Chartered Bank Brunei and Tutong Telamba Homestay.

Beach Bunch’s senior member Wina Hafiza said the volunteers were divided into groups of four, with three being assigned to collect waste and the fourth one tasked as a data collector.

She said the waste will be collected by Daikyo Environmental Recycling Sdn Bhd by the end of the day.

“We don’t charge any money from Daikyo,” said Wina.

Maktab Sains’ biology teacher Nor SY Chua Abdullah said around 50 students participated in yesterday’s clean-up campaign.

“Three teachers, including me, from Maktab Sains also joined the campaign. We also bring our children for the good cause,” she said.

Nor SY Chua noticed fewer styrofoam containers and cups thrown across the beach compared to last year.

However she said that most of the waste she collected along the coastal area were plastic bottles, wet wipes and cigarette butts.

“They were strewn all round. The government should educate the public more about this,” she said.

“During the beach clean-up last year, we came back to the beach the following day and found out that the area was littered with plastic bottles,” said the teacher.

Nor SY Chua also saw that the bins at the beach were empty, giving the impression that no one bothered to use them.

Meanwhile, CBTL Training Manager, Mohamad Fairuz Ibrahim, said it is the second time CBTL joined the cleaning campaign this year.

“We provide some refreshments for the volunteers,” he said, adding that 11 volunteers joined the campaign, most of them were their regular customers and the rest were employees.

Mohamad Fairuz urged people to participate in the clean-up campaign to raise public awareness about the importance of taking care of the beach.

Meanwhile, Rizan added that a total of 1,000 students from 12 schools in Belait District will be participating in a cleaning campaign organised by Beach Bunch at six different locations today.

Among the locations are Jubilee Park, Rampayoh Panaga and Billionth Barrel Monument Seria.

The Brunei Times