India’s first inter-collegiate beach clean-up organised in Mumbai

On Sunday evening, a one-of-its-kind beach clean-up was held in the city. An inter-collegiate beach clean-up competition called ‘

Clean Coast Cup 2018

’ was organised yesterday between 1 pm and 5.30 pm between Prabhadevi and

Mahim

, with 20 colleges participating in the competition. Close to 1,170 members from 117 teams collected around 20.3 tonnes of garbage.

The chief guest for the event was Aaditya Thackeray along with Hemangi Worlikar, Deputy Mayor of Mumbai. “I am impressed with the concept and creativity of turning a beach clean-up into a competition. It is required that we use such innovative ways to increase the involvement of the citizens and awareness within the society,” said Aaditya.
The first position was secured by Sydenham College as they collected 980 kgs of waste while VSIT came second by collecting 860 kgs of waste. The third position was a tie between Wilson College and

Elphinstone College

where both the colleges collected nearly 800 kgs of waste. The winners were awarded with certificates, medals, a trophy and cash prizes.

Speaking about the idea behind the initiative, Nida Memon, member of

Beach Please

– the group that organised the activity, said, “We were talking about the crazy energy at college festivals and that’s when this idea struck us. We thought, ‘Why shouldn’t beach cleaning be made fun?’ And so, started the process of Clean Coast Cup 2018. The event took about two months of planning before being executed.”

Beach Please is a group founded by Malhar Kalambe, a 21-year-old student. The group conducts weekly clean-up drives at

Dadar

Beach. The team has cleared more than 450 tonnes of garbage from Dadar Beach in 57 Weeks. On its way, the campaign has involved almost 5000 citizens to the cause.