As many as 300 volunteers from Youth Exnora International and HCL Technologies cleaned Marina Beach on July 4.
Equipped with trash bags and gloves the volunteers collected bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable items they could find.
Youth Exnora International, General Secretary, N. Nirmal Chander, said, “Around 13 tonnes of trash were collected from the clean-up drive. It is our responsibility to maintain our beaches clean. It was good to see many young volunteers join hands to clean the beach.”
The drive was aimed at creating awareness among the public. People should start segregating garbage into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable at home. This will help in keeping the surroundings clean, Mr. Chander added. He advised people to avoid using plastics to counter global warming.
As part of the campaign, a workshop on solid waste management was held at DAV School, Mogappair, for students of Class II to VIII. Pamphlets on waste management were distributed to students. Around 100 saplings were planted by the employees of HCL Technologies Private Limited, at their office premises and around Ambattur Industrial Estate.
The campaign came to an end with an awareness rally on environment protection taken by more than 500 volunteers of Youth Exnora and HCL at Besant Nagar Beach. The rally was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker D. Jayakumar.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jayakumar advised the volunteers to grow more number of trees to protect the environment.
“Global warming is threatening to pose serious problems. It is time to raise more trees to protect the environment. Proper solid waste management and sustained environmental protection awareness programmes were the other measures that would go a long way in checking adverse effects of global warming,” Chander said.
