| A Day of Beach Cleaning |
by Jim Dellecker
April 2004
On Saturday March 20, volunteers swarmed the Costa Grande, committed to giving four hours of their time to cleaning our beaches, our bay, lagoons and even some streets and neighborhoods. Plastic beverage bottles were the most collected item, however the assortment included plastic bags, cans, glass bottles, chunks of polyurethane foam, cigarette filters, bottle caps, asbestos roofing, hypodermic syringes, tires, diapers, a truck bumper and other assorted trash. The hands that collected the refuse belong to school children, parents, teachers, college students, local business owners, corporate executives and employees, fishermen, restaurant and hotel workers, surfers, retirees and tourists. More than 500 people signed on to participate in this event. Unfortunately, some groups fell apart at the last moment, leaving some areas short handed. However spontaneous participation also occurred in other areas, making a true head count impossible. In total, more than 900 extra large garbage bags were filled with refuse.
Four Zihuatanejo garbage trucks, staged at the municipal plaza, did not idle long as school children and other volunteers assembled to pick up waste bags and donated water. At 8:00 AM, the enthusiastic work began! It would continue late into the day with the city’s trucks and crews challenged to keep up with the volume of stuffed trash bags placed at numerous predetermined sites.
South of Zihuatanejo, in the Petatlán area, a group got together to clean the beach of San Valentín. In Barra de Potosí, resident Otto Selis had organized the village who turned out to clean the beaches, the lagoon and the beach road. Over 250 bags were filled in la Barra alone. After the work, volunteers, consisting mostly of la Barra school children, got together for a well-earned fiesta complete with food, drink and piñatas. Multiple groups covered playa Blanca, including the Rotary Club of Zihuatanejo and a group of school children. Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) had a “beach day” and worked on Playa Larga. Others set off by boat to work the isolated coves and beaches behind the lighthouse. SCUBA divers began cleaning the bay floor itself.
The Euromexicana school turned out to clean the beaches of Ixtapa, while a Tai Chi group headed by Carmen Elena Huras of EcoIxtapa took care of Isla Ixtapa. Students from the Facultad de Turismo, under the direction of Ing. Javier Castrejón, cleaned the long stretch of Playa Linda. The Zihuatanejo Surfer’s Club, headed by Ivan Fernández, cleaned a favorite surfing spot, Playa Barrio Nuevo. In the Troncones area, local residents and business owners organized their own efforts and cleaned their beaches. Mary Rushing of Zihuatanejo coordinated the effort for Madera Beach and included the streets of the colonia as well.
Never content to simply sit on the beach for very long, it has been my habit to take beach walks and pick up litter as I encounter it. That prompted my desire to try to organize a beach cleaning campaign. As a tourist destination, “Zihuatanejo” often includes places like Troncones and Barra de Potosí, so in my mind, those areas needed to be included. I brought my idea to SOS Bahía, a Zihuatanejo based environmental action group. The group embraced the idea and we set out to put plans into motion.
I reasoned that no matter how many people participated, or how much garbage was carted off the beaches, this event would be a success nonetheless. I approached various groups in the area, and spoke about my vision: the preservation of the Zihuatanejo area as a place where the tourism based economy and the more traditional economies such as small scale fishing could co-exist and compliment each other. I talked about the preservation and restoration of bio-diversity and how, with more and better ecological efforts, eco-tourism might flourish, turning our “low” season into a more economically stable “green” season.
Almost everyone I spoke with agreed that a clean up event was a great idea. There were some who expressed their doubt that the project could be successful: it was just too big or that it would be too difficult to bring the necessary people together to pull it off. Still, they wanted to part of it, gave their commitment and directed me to yet another possible participant.
As the clock ticked noon and the Saturday morning beach cleaning project came to conclusion, it was readily apparent that not only did many beaches get cleaner, but a lot of fun was had too. Of course, a one-day effort to clean our beaches can not bring long term health to our environment: expect more coordinated enviro-events. Ongoing education and increased awareness of our fragile eco-system is critical. Together, we all should work toward the day when youngsters will wonder why, back in the year 2004, we needed a “Día de Limpieza de Playas.” Quoting the children of Barra de Potosí, “¡Viva la Tierra!, ¡Viva la Bahía!”
Jim Dellecker and his wife Marjorie, are retired and live in Zihuatanejo year-round. In addition to volunteer work with SOS Bahia, they are “land-based” volunteers to Sailfest 2004 and 2005 which supports area schools. Jim is a member of the Rotary Club of Zihuatanejo. Jim can be contacted at elpatoviejo@yahoo.com.mx. For more information on SOS Bahía, visit www.sosbahia.org |
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