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Tetra Pak Egypt cleans-up Magawish island

We all know about or at least heard of the impact of human pollution on the environment. But do we really know how much rubbish the waters and the islands of the Red Sea are accumulating? On the 6th of March 2012, HEPCA in association with Tetra Pak Egypt scheduled a clean-up on Magawish Island. The first impression was astonishing and heart-breaking as the compiled garbage densely clustered on our precious Magawish Island. This appalling view solitarily forced the team to instant work, which made a great difference on the landscape. The team gathered together for a famous HEPCA-nian “Clean-Up”; however, this time the event did not take place on land but on Magawish, an island just off the coast of Hurghada. About 70 people took part actively and enthusiastically in collecting the compiled solid waste, which mostly consisted of empty plastic bottles washed ashore to the beaches of the island. After about two hours of work a huge mountain of black plastic bags, full of assembled rubbish appeared on the horizon of the island! Result: the team collected an outstanding amount of approx. 170 bags filled with rubbish. As successful as the clean up turned out, it was not easy transporting all the bags from the island to the boats and finally back to Hurghada for disposal. The main issue was that the boats could not come close to the island as the water was too shallow plus it could have damaged the already sensitive coral reefs. A felucca, which was helping out in the cleanup, was able to take about 60/70 bags at once. This meant multiple trips, backwards and forwards, to ensure all rubbish, as well as people, were being transported (safely!) to the main boats. If there is a will, there is always a way! All collected rubbish bags, patiently and scrupulously, were removed from the island to the boats that were almost buried under the amount of black plastic sacks. By the time we reached Hurghada, the process repeated but this time excluding our brave felucca. With the help of the boat crew as well as Tetra Pak members the bags were taken off the boat decks to the land, where the HEPCA solid waste trucks were already waiting to collect the rubbish. Great team and outstanding results! HEPCA would like to say THANK YOU to Tetra Pak Egypt for its amazing involvement in the clean-up as well as for the investment of three hook-lift containers they sponsored for the solid waste management of Hurghada. Every hand makes a difference, either in collecting rubbish or recycling or investing in a good cause, and is greatly appreciated not only by HEPCA but also by the environment that we all live in.