Yes, you read that right. To plalk is to pick up litter while walking.
Instead of just shells and shiny pebbles, the bright red, the blue, green, purple and pink catch my eye on my frequent beach walks these days. These are the colours we humans use to pretty up our addiction to the plastic that we are quite literally drowning in.
I am now addicted to plastic in quite a different way. I seek it out on the beach; I walk out of my way if I spot a flash of colour. Then I scoop it up and toss it into the bag that I picked up at our beach litter station.
My seaside village set up this litter station at the main entrance to the beach about six weeks ago, and I swear the beach is cleaner. Every day, though, more litter washes up, and then the high tide takes it back into the sea to appear on another beach. That’s the ebb and flow of plastic waste in the ocean.
A sea of plastic
The figures are staggering. Plastic waste pollutes 88% of the surface of our oceans. All baby sea turtles – all! – have plastic in their stomachs. Plastic pollution kills more than a million seabirds every year.
One in three fish caught for human food contains plastic (there is quite a lot of plastic in humans, too – each of us consumes, on average, 78,000 to 211,000 microplastics a year).
(If you want to find out more, feel free to dig through my main sources: UN Environment Programme; Surfers Against Sewage; the Ocean Cleanup; and Condor.)
Turning the tide
Obviously, the entire system must change: how and why we produce, use and dispose of plastic.
But instead of throwing up our hands and giving up before even starting, think about this: a lot of that plastic – about 80% – lands up on beaches, washing back into the ocean, and back onto shore again and again (until it’s perhaps eaten by or killed a creature).
It is on the beach that each one of us can make a difference. We all have this power. Every single piece of plastic we remove from the beach is one less piece that could damage sea life or break down into microplastics that end up in the food chain and our bodies.
A new wave of doing things
Organized beach clean-ups have been around for a while, and they are important in tackling beach litter. These are sometimes one-off events – perhaps in response to an emergency, such as when litter is washed down a river after heavy rain – and sometimes scheduled events, perhaps annually or biannually. Either way, they are occasional blitz-type events.
I’m discovering that my village is a trend setter – and we didn’t even know it! We’ve adopted a newer tool in the arsenal, the more low-key roving cleanup approach. Beachgoers take a bag from stands at beach access points, fill it with litter, empty it in provided bins, and return the bag for reuse. This roving “bag it, bin it” approach encourages every single beach visitor to collect beach litter every single day.
The activities are different, but their goal is the same: to remove litter from beaches.
A quiet revolution
It’s happening all over. I was intrigued to see a “plogging” sign in the San Francisco Bay a couple of years ago – I did not realize then that this was a growing trend. To plog is to pick up litter while jogging. It’s great exercise, the sign suggested. According to this abstract, (and the sign), “plogging” originated in Sweden (where it is called “plocka upp”) in 2016. The authors call it a “pro-environmental behaviour”.
Now, I’ve come across the term “plalking” (picking up litter while walking) – which is what we’re doing. And I can confirm, from experience, that plalking on the beach is a great workout. You stretch, bend, twist and use muscles you may have forgotten you have.
You also feel good about doing this. There’s the addictive element – since my village project started, I simply cannot walk past litter on the beach without picking it up.
Getting it going
Our village project made the local newspaper. And several other villages have approached us for details on how to get one going. Our project itself was inspired by another, at Cannon Rocks and Boknesstrand.
If you would like to start a project like this, here’s how ours works.
We joined hands with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and set up a small working group. Residents drive the project, and SANBI ensures environmental compliance and provides broad management and community outreach. This kind of partnership is essential if you want your project to be sustainable in the long term.
We hand-make the bags, mostly out of end cloth, used to clean the print rollers at our local fabric manufacturer, Da Gama. Our bags measure 45cm wide by 50cm deep, with boxed corners. Any bigger gets too unwieldy to take on a walk; this is different to an organized clean-up where people pick up litter in a group, often with large sacks.
Bags will walk (someone has possessed one of ours) or perish (the end cloth we use stands up well to the elements). Expect that. Do avoid using plastic packets, which break quickly and add to pollution.
Some communities link with the local municipality to collect the garbage. We have chosen to take the plastic waste to a recycler. We also use a recycled plastic bin because it looks nicer, but any type of bin will do. For funding, we appealed to residents and local businesses. Others crowdfund or get some support from their local government and environmental agency.
What you do is really up to you.
Happy plalking!
If you need more inspiration, here are a few examples of beach cleanup station projects from around the world:
- All One Ocean – Beach Cleanup Stations, California & Hawaii, USA
- Up2U Litter Prevention Campaign, Texas Gulf Coast, USA
- Hollywood Beach Litter Collection Bucket Stations, Hollywood Beach, Florida, USA
- Beach Bucket Foundation, Florida, USA
