On Saturday, about 1,800 city residents descended on Elliot’s Beach with brooms and bins.
Sporting T-shirts that read ‘Bin there. Done that?’, volunteers including Rotaractors, Rotarians and a large number of college students spent the afternoon clearing plastic wrappers and covers, and paper cups from the beach. They also formed a human chain to mark World Peace Day that was observed on Friday.
About 1,500 members of GO Green and 300 members of a non-governmental organisation, ‘Teens and Twenty’, took part in the drive.
Mythili Muralidharan, chairman of GO Green, said, “The beaches should be declared ‘no-plastic’ zones, like in Kodaikkanal. Merely installing display boards is not enough, we have to follow the instructions as well.”
Several members who took part in the cleanliness drive had strong opinions about permanent solutions to reduce filth on beaches. While Samyukta Sundar, a college student, pointed out the serious dearth of dustbins on the beach, Niveditha Muthukrishnan felt the remedy to that problem would be disposal bins made out of cement, in order to prevent theft or damage.
The members of the GO Green campaign promoted the use of biodegradable containers and cups. Declaring their motto of Namma Chennai, namma responsibility , the young members of the campaign scoured the beach picking up waste materials and dumping them in biodegradable garbage bags.
