Beach clean-up
With the approach of the busy beach season, the International Division staff once again demonstrated their wholehearted commitment to serve the local community by organizing the annual Ōarai Beach Clean-up.
The annual Ōarai Beach Clean-up project was initiated by two eco-concerned Ibaraki ALTs (formerly known as AETs) in 1997, with the objective of promoting international exchange while educating the community on environmental awareness and marine ecosystem preservation. The following year, the CIR of the International Affairs Division inherited the organizer position and it has become one of the most anticipated on-going international events offered by our division.
Besides the enthusiastic kenchō team, we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by twenty other eco-friendly workers (Japanese and non-Japanese) and a crew of eccentric television staff, hauled in from Tōkyō TV, who showed up in full force for this exciting "trash hunt."
Although the number of participants was less than half of last year's turnout, which could be blamed on the recent typhoon attack, our enthusiastic spirit and determination to offer the beach a taste of cleanliness could not be dampened by the sudden dismal change in weather (I myself wore a down jacket throughout the clean-up).
The forecast was for rain the entire day but we were lucky in that it held off until the afternoon. We had a few signs indicating where the event was being held, and as it was really windy we had "the brothers," Tod and Paul, with their infamous umbrella hats, stand at the intersection of the parking entrance, directing all drivers (regardless of their purpose of visit) to our registration area.
We started our beach clean-up at around 10:30 a.m., after a brief explanation of garbage separation procedures. We were instructed to separate our trash into one of five different categories: combustible, non-combustible, can, plastic bottle, and glass. As we ventured off to do some trash picking, we discovered that many of the articles fit neither easily into any of our five categories, nor the provided garbage bags. Among these items were a high pressure water pipe, pieces of wire, lots of nails, plastic bags, cigarette butts, broken glass, a good number of plastic pipes—one being about 7–8 cm in diameter and over a meter long—and a large spool of cable wire (it had taken Paul two years to finally get it out of the sand, literally quoted by himself).
Originally scheduled to be a full day event, we were forced to cut it short and ended after a brief refreshment time due to the miserable weather. Having said that, everyone agreed the event turned out to be quite a success as we are now one step closer towards a trash-free beach.
