The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 6 reiterates to the public the need to
practice proper waste management after the recent coastal clean-up in the region yielded more
plastic waste.
Around 12,000 estimated plastic waste were collected from the six provinces of Western Visayas in
total, with an approximate estimated weight equivalent to 983 sacks.
Anchored to the theme “Clean Seas for Healthy Fisheries,” the clean-up activity was held in line with
Proclamation No. 470, declaring the third Saturday of September each year as the International
Coastal Clean-Up (ICC) Day.
Around 1,379 male and 1,523 female volunteers, grouped across the region, filled up the ICC Ocean
Trash Data Form to identify the picked-up wastes that are being submitted to the Ocean Conservancy
as a means to contribute to the global efforts of combating plastic pollution.
To note, ICC is one of the world’s largest volunteer efforts aimed at raising awareness of the health of
our oceans and bodies of water.
This also strongly supports the objectives of the United Nations (UN) Ocean
Decade Challenge 3 which is to “Sustainably Feed the Global Population.”
“Our oceans produce fifty percent of the oxygen on this planet and it holds far more diverse natural
resources that benefit mankind. From our oceans we harvest fishes that feed us, medicines that heal
us, and even renewable energy resources that power our homes,” said DENR 6 regional executive
director Livino B. Duran.
Thus, he enjoined everyone to take part in minimizing, if not eradicating, microplastic pollution in the
oceans.
“We can each start right inside our homes by practicing proper solid waste management. Do the 5 Rs
– refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle. We do this not just for us but for the sustainable future of
the coming generations,” Duran added. (PIA-6 with reports from DENR 6)
