MANNAM Volunteer association :Cleaning up at Brunei beach

MUARA - A total of 635.5kg of rubbish was collected in a span of almost two hours during a clean-up of Tungku Beach yesterday dubbed by organisers as their largest campaign of the year.

Organised by the Beach Bunch, 820 volunteers comprising family and friends from various schools and organisations as well as members of the public combed the littered beach, picking up garbage for disposal and recycling for the event, in conjunction with World Environment Day which fell on June 5.

Closely aligning to its motto of "Keeping our beaches clean and enjoyable", the Beach Bunch said that the event's main aim was to see people from all backgrounds come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.

Running up to the morning activity, the Beach Bunch had been expecting a record turnout, with more than 1,600 participants registering online. Nevertheless, the final number was a huge encouragement, almost equalling the total of 847 volunteers achieved at the same event last year.

"Some of the organisations who had planned to come today had to miss it due to unforseen circumstances. Most importantly, we still managed to have fun while cleaning up the entire beach," said Beach Bunch President, Rizan Latif.

Kicking off at 7.30am, volunteers split up into three camps, covering an area of 4.5 sq kms. Two Beach Bunch members led each camp, supported by volunteers from Sultan Saiful Rijal Technical College (MTSSR).

The teams carried all the trash they picked up at collection centres at each camp, where it was then segregated into general trash for disposal and plastic for recycling. Out of the total amount of rubbish collected, 152.5kg was recyclable plastic.

Jing Shun, Michelle Lee and Jessica Kok, classmates from Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College (Maktab Sains), told The Brunei Times that the event was an exciting one for them.

Jessica said that they "really enjoyed their day out of school while doing something good", with Jing Shun agreeing that they "learnt a lot... even finding a discarded sink by the rocks."

Timbul Simanjuntak, an Indonesian living in Brunei for 15 years, had brought along his two young children.
"It's a great opportunity to teach children to appreciate the environment and get a good workout at the same time!" he claimed.

Timbul's wife, Retna Silalahi, is also coordinator of the Indonesian Community Association (Permai). According to her, about 80 members from Permai's Green Club contributed during the morning, as part of their own regular "green" activities.

Volunteers for the event were made up of 10 schools (PTE Tutong, Maktab Duli-Pyro Club, International School Brunei ISB), Jerudong International School (JIS), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), PTE Meragang, MTSSR, Maktab Sains, and Brunei Polytechnic, as well as business and other organisations including Total, Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), Petroleum Brunei, ST Marine, Standard Chartered, HSBC, S Team, BAG Networks, Green Brunei, Permai Green Club, joined by members of the general public.
It was sponsored by Total, BSP, ST Marine, Rentokil, Fabrica and Poxio, and supported by Brunei Tourism and the Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation.

The nation's 150km coastline is lined with many public beaches which are kept relatively garbage-free by the government and various organisations in the country that organise regular voluntary clean-up activities.

Cleaning up at Brunei beach


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It's good to see many people gathering for a good work :)
There is a Korean general saying,
"There are people who only throw away and others who only pick up".
It is just how it works? haha
Since the earth has those "others", we can appreciate the environment :)
Glad to inform you good news like this :)