Beach clean-ups around Port Elizabeth

The team at Raggy Charters endeavour to clean up all of the plastic and other pollution along our beaches to minimise the amount of rubbish in our oceans. We undertake regular beach clean-ups to reduce this impact, and organise events for the whole community to get involved with. The latest being combined with our Education Program and Celebrating The Arrival Of The Whales Festival which is and will continue to be held annually in June.  Youth from various schools in Port Elizbeth were taught about the plastic waste and helped gather waste and built floats with this waste and were paraded along our beach front to the Festival venue - Pine Lodge Resort and Conference Centre. This waste was then sent for recycling.  The festival has grown and to accommodate we have a new venue from 2022, The Willows Resort, a perfect site                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 .

A project was  started in June 2014 when we launched the Wildside Beachwalkers Initative, which saw residents along the wildside of Port Elizabeth doing regular beach clean-ups. We proposed to the locals that whenever you go to the beach; with the kids, with your dogs, for a nice peaceful walk, take a  bag & gloves and do a bit of clearing. This simple action done by many can make a huge difference. And our efforts have increased as we have begun tackling the problem head on by approaching the squid fishing industry and the local authorities. We are hoping to start seeing these fishing boats returning to shore with all of their rubbish, instead of dumping it overboard as we have proved has been happening.  

After 20 years it seems to be a never ending task and large amounts of plastic is still around after beach clean up efforts so we have changed our main focus into trying to get Government to cut down on the production and distribution of single use plastic.  We are currently meeting with Supermarket chains to discuss alternative options and the way forward.

Some of our beach clean-ups and initiatives