6 tonnes of plastic collected in Swatchhta Beach Clean-up in Vizag

Visakhapatnam District Collector A Mallikarjuna, GVMC Commissioner G Lakshmisha, volunteers, students and members of various NGOs took part in the ‘Swatchhta beach clean-up’ program on Sunday 3 July 2022 in Bheemunipatnam, Vizag. The awareness program took place in Bheemunipatnam with good public support.

Speaking on the occasion, the Commissioner said that the officials are planning to conduct beach clean-up programmes on the first Sunday of every month in Vizag. He added that on Sunday they collectively collected about six tonnes of plastic which will further be transferred to waste disposal centres. He said that their ultimate goal was to see a 100 per cent ban on single-use plastic.

The District Collector said that the main objective of these beach clean-up programs was to create awareness of cleanliness and also combat plastic pollution. With lakhs of tourists visiting the beaches of Visakhapatnam every year, he opined that there was a need to create awareness among the people on the ban on single-use plastic. He added that they plan to give out 12 lakhs of cloth bags to the public in order to initiate the drive towards choosing alternatives to single-use plastic.

The GVMC Commissioner said that 3 July is celebrated as the International Plastic Bag Free Day and requested residents of Visakhapatnam to carry their own cloth bags every time they go out shopping. He said that this small change will help GVMC achieve its target of making Vizag a plastic-free city soon.

Beach clean-up programs were conducted at various other beaches in the past. RK Beach, Jodugullapalem, and Sagar Nagar beach were among the few, where the officials created awareness around the importance of keeping our beaches clean.
Joint collector KS Viswanathan, Bheemili Zonal Commissioner S Venkata Ramana and others were present.

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