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CAVITEX Efforts Towards

a Trash-Free Coastal

By Mhanny S. Agusto, Communication

and Stakeholder Management

Paranaque City – With the observance of the annual celebration of
the International Coastal Cleanup Day, CAVITEX volunteered for the
coastal cleanup activity held last September 21, 2019 at the Las
Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA).

Despite the gloomy weather, 70 volunteers from Volunteer
Employees of South Tollways (VEST) and CAVITEX Advocates for the
Restoration of Environment (CARE) joined forces at the last
eco-tourism frontier in the Metro to pick up trash, each sorting out

the trash by its kind, and then record it for data gathering purposes.

Items such as plastic bottles and food wrappers, cigarette butts,

bottle caps and plastic bags were among the top items found in the
coastline. All contingents from this year’s ICC hope that events like
this will eventually lead to a trash-free community, wherein
clean-up is no longer needed.

Held every third Saturday of September, the International Coastal
Cleanup is an event spearheaded by the Ocean Conservancy group
that aims to eliminate ocean trash. Since 1994, Philippines remain to
be a top participating country in this global effort, recovering

thousands of kilos of marine waste from its coastlines. During ICC
events, volunteers are not only retrieving the waste from water
bodies but are also asked to do a “waste audit” to tally the items
found during the cleanup.