Jangamo Bay sits on the edge of what Love The Oceans calls the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch – the third biggest in the world. Trash washing ashore is, in the charity’s words, a frequent event, with plastics making up the majority.
In response, the team runs regular beach cleans and sorts what it collects so it can be upcycled. Working with a former volunteer, Love The Oceans even built an app to streamline data collection – so every clean is also a survey, monitoring exactly what is washing up. The three most commonly logged items are plastic fragments, plastic bottle caps and discarded fishing gear.
From beach to product
Once collected, the trash is logged, weighed, cleaned and sorted, then fed into a machine that softens the plastic and moulds it into new products. To date, Love The Oceans reports removing and upcycling over 85,000 pieces of plastic and more than a tonne of trash – one pillar of a broader, community-led holistic approach to conservation.
Over 85,000 pieces of plastic and more than a tonne of trash has been picked up off the beach and upcycled.
Francesca Trotman, Love The Oceans
