What happens upstream doesn’t stay upstream. It is this very waste crisis that saw The Litterboom Project bring together 87 passionate participants for an unforgettable Beach Jam clean-up session at Umgeni Beach, right by the vital Beachwood Mangroves, in honour of World Ocean Day.
Umgeni Beach, South Africa (11 June 2025) – How fortunate we are to have something as vast and magnificent as the ocean, offering us not just wonder but a wealth of environmental, recreational, and health benefits to enjoy.
Doing their part to give back to the blue marvel that does so much for us was The Litterboom Project. The team hosted an epic World Ocean Day Beach Jam Session at Umgeni Beach, alongside the Beachwood Mangroves, a vital estuarine nature reserve located at the mouth of the uMngeni River.
The clean-up, held on Saturday, 8 June, brought together community members, learners, and corporate partners for a morning of meaningful environmental action and education. A total of 87 participants collected 146 bags of litter, weighing 656.5 kilograms, a stark reminder of the amount of waste that continues to flow downstream and accumulate along our coastline.
According to the project’s Casey Pratt, this stretch of coastline is not just a popular public space, but also an ecologically sensitive area. The Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve alone protects 76 hectares of a natural estuarine system.
“Mangroves play a vital role in coastal health: their tangled root systems help prevent erosion, protect shorelines from storms and flooding, and act as natural filters, trapping sediment and pollutants before they reach the ocean.
“They also serve as an important nursery habitat for fish and other marine life. Unfortunately, the uMngeni River system is under constant threat from pollution, including sewage and illegal dumping,” Pratt shared.
Much of the waste carried downstream ends up trapped in the mangroves or flushed out to sea, only to wash back up on beaches like Umgeni.
World Ocean Day served as a timely reminder that what happens upstream doesn’t stay upstream. Intercepting waste at multiple points, including rivers, estuaries, and beaches, is crucial in protecting both our coastal ecosystems and ocean health.
The Litterboom Project, with the support of The Savanna Foundation, also has a team based at Beachwood Mangroves five days a week, working to intercept as much waste as possible before it reaches the sea. But Saturday’s event made it clear: there’s still a long road ahead, and community involvement is key.
While many participants admitted they were shocked by the volume of waste, there was a shared sense of motivation. One local school that attended a previous Beach Jam Session was so impacted by what they saw that they chose to ban polystyrene on campus, a small but significant step in the right direction.
The Beach Jam Session was about more than just cleaning up. It connected people to the spaces around them, surfacing the reality of the waste crisis, and showing that small, collective actions can add up to meaningful change.
Sources: Supplied
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