Thanam Industry Sdn Bhd have successfully completed our third-year collaboration with Zurich Shared Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd as part of Zurich Malaysia Climate Month, Pantai Cunang, for the beach cleanup activity, which was held on September 26, 2024.
As planned, the event was started by an awareness speech given by Thanam Industry Sdn Bhd representative, Thanasekaran Kumaraguru, which made volunteers understand more about recycling for preserving many natural resources. He continued about two major types of waste that can be found on beaches. They are organic and inorganic wastes. Organic waste is waste that comes from living things such as plants, animals, and microorganisms and is biodegradable or decomposes in less than 6 months. Inorganic waste, on the other hand, is made of non-living materials such as glasses, plastics, and metals. Those materials will take up to 500 years to decompose.
Whenever plastic reaches the shore, it gradually breaks down into smaller pieces, which are taken as food by marine animals. These creatures may suffer for months or years with these microplastics. These plastics contain toxic chemicals and may increase the chance of diseases and may affect reproduction. And one more thing we have to note is that water from oceans is heated by the sun, evaporating into the air. The water condenses into clouds and returns to earth in the form of rain and snow. If water from the beach, sea, or ocean gets polluted, this water cycle which provides rain will be affected. He also added that the change in this water cycle will lead to an unpredicted change in climate. So, it is our responsibility to maintain beaches clean to avoid these impacts.
Then the group was split up into three teams, and without any delay, we started the cleanup activity. Thanam Industry team members assisted volunteers about identifying inorganic wastes and how those trashes are to be collected, separated, and transported to the scrap yard. In this collaboration with Zurich Malaysia, we have collected around 500 kg of trash from the beach, and about 99% of the wastes were plastic, glass bottles, nylon, and netting.
Cleanup is more important for beaches to make waves shine. By organizing beach clean-ups regularly, the visual appearance and general beach vibe are greatly enhanced, which will also boost up the tourism industry and local economy.