Malaysians for a Cleaner Malaysia

By Reef Check Malaysia

It has been a busy quarter for our team in Malaysia. However, the highlight of our work this quarter has to be the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day 2022. After the pandemic, this year our ICC is back on the beaches. 

The official ICC day for Malaysia is September 10; however, ICC went on throughout the month of September. Reef Check Malaysia is the official organizer of ICC in Malaysia and has been so for the past few years.

In all, 9,316 volunteers joined the campaign with 9,252 volunteers cleaning up on land and 64 divers doing underwater cleanups. A total of 25,514 kg (56,248 lbs) of trash was collected over 396 km of coastlines around Malaysia.

The top three items found were, unsurprisingly, cigarette butts at 55,100 pieces, 44,706 plastic bottles and 34,673 plastic or foam pieces smaller than 2.5 cm – also known as microplastics.

We are grateful to our main sponsor, TechnipFMC. TechnipFMC has made it their goal to support ICC this year to take greater environmental responsibility amongst the employees, particularly on proper waste management. TechnipFMC also encourages employees to contribute to the community they work and live in.

The TechnipFMC team alongside their families joined in the cleanup at two beaches in Melaka and Johor. In just one day, they removed 1,405 kg (3,097 lbs) of trash!

The hashtag #ICCMY2022 was used this year to track and share everyone’s efforts on social media. Moreover, the Ocean Mall initiative was launched during this year’s event to change consumerist trends into conservation trends. Clean-up volunteers, especially divers conducting underwater clean-ups, will go “shopping” for trash and post their finds on social media using the #OceanMall and #ICCMY2022 hashtags.