10th Coastal Cleanup held in Bangladesh

Coca-Cola Bangladesh and Ocean Conservancy’s country coordinator- Kewkradong Bangladesh have successfully concluded the 10th Annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) at the beach of the country’s only coral island - St Martin’s.

As part of Coca-Cola’s global commitment to create a “World Without Waste” by 2030, Coca-Cola has been supporting coastal cleanup voluntary initiative since 2011 in Bangladesh.

The Coca-Cola Company is one of Ocean Conservancy’s longest standing partners, supporting its work since 1995. Through this partnership, Coca-Cola is working towards clean and pollution free oceans across the globe.

Despite the current Covid-19 pandemic, approximately 520 volunteers from different professions came together to collect more than 870-kg of marine debris this year.

Through the effort by Kewkradong & Coca-Cola Bangladesh, more than 4,500 people have volunteered and collected over 12,000 kilograms of marine debris in the last 10 years.

All Covid-19 protective and safety procedures were followed, such as Covid-19 test for all, face masks, gloves, sanitizers, and maintaining proper social distance.

Volunteers from different walks of life including students, teachers and local representatives from across the country, participated in collecting and segregation of waste and interacted with and sensitized the beachgoers on the importance of marine conservation.

As a part of the day long activity, an opinion exchange meeting was arranged with the local government representatives including the local Union Parishad Chairman and UP members, to discuss the importance of protecting the ecological balance of the environment and ways to keep the coastal areas clean and pollution-free more effectively. 

International Coastal Cleanup is the world’s largest volunteer effort, attracting thousands of participants to collect millions of pounds of waste and debris from beaches, lakes and waterways. Their focus was to collect non-disposal wastes such as cigarette filters, chips packets, etc. After collecting the waste, it was disposed of at a specified location and sorted out all patterns of waste items collected during the event.