In local classrooms
Our two full-time teachers visit local schools throughout the year, teaching in Bisaya under an agreement with DepEd, and plastic pollution is part of what they teach. Our lesson plans on plastic are free for any teacher to use.
Combating Ocean Plastics
Every tide brings litter onto the beaches of southern Negros Oriental, most of it plastic. Since we began keeping records in 2021, our clean-up team has collected more than 427,000 kilos of it.
The Philippines is at the heart of the world's ocean plastic problem. A 2021 study estimated that Philippine rivers carry more plastic to the sea than those of any other country, about a third of the global total from rivers. That figure comes from a model rather than direct measurement, but the reasons behind it are easy to see here: thousands of islands, short rivers running from busy towns straight to the coast, and waste collection that struggles to keep up. Everyday goods are sold in sachets, single portions of shampoo, coffee or soy sauce sealed in small plastic packets, and Filipinos use more than 163 million of them a day.
Picking plastic off beaches will not solve that on its own, and we don't pretend it does. But it keeps plastic off our reefs today, it tells us exactly what is washing up, and it gives 15 local people steady, full-time work.
Sources for these figures
- Meijer, L.J.J. et al. (2021). More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean. Science Advances 7(18): eaaz5803.
- GAIA (2019). Plastics Exposed: How waste assessments and brand audits are helping Philippine cities fight plastic pollution.
427,000+kilos of litter collected since 2021
17 million+pieces of plastic removed, by our estimate
15Filipino staff on our full-time clean-up team
5municipalities along our stretch of coast
A full-time clean-up team
We have run weekly beach and dive clean-ups since we started in 2015. In 2020 we went a big step further and teamed up with Pro Ocean, a German non-profit that funds clean-ups in Asia through partnerships with companies, most of them in Europe.
The partnership pays for 15 Filipino staff to collect litter along our coast as their full-time job. Companies fund the work through Ocean Plastics Removal Credits, so we weigh and log every haul, and our monthly records show exactly what their support has achieved.
Where we collect
The team covers the coast of five municipalities in southern Negros Oriental. In Zamboanguita, Siaton and Santa Catalina, we also survey the reefs and help run the marine protected areas. In Dauin and Dumaguete City, our work is limited to weekly coastal clean-ups.
The team is out six days a week, and you are welcome to join them, with family, friends or colleagues. Find out how to join a clean-up.
- Zamboanguita, Siaton and Santa Catalina: clean-ups, reef surveys and marine protected areas
- Dauin and Dumaguete City: weekly coastal clean-ups
What washes up
Each kilo we collect contains about 49 pieces of litter, 40 of them plastic.
We know this from detailed audits of our beach clean-ups between 2017 and 2019, when we sorted, counted and weighed more than 214,000 items. They show how weight alone hides the problem. Plastic makes up 82% of the pieces we pick up but only 32% of the weight. Glass is the opposite: over a third of the weight, but just 6% of the pieces.
Half of all pieces are soft plastic: sachets, wrappers, bags and film. Add foam and you have two out of every three.
We still use this breakdown to estimate piece counts from the weights we record today.
One kilo of beach litter, piece by piece
- Soft plastic24 pieces, 20% of weight
- Foamed plastic9 pieces, 3% of weight
- Hard plastic7 pieces, 9% of weight
- Glass and ceramic3 pieces, 35% of weight
- Metal2 pieces, 10% of weight
- Paper, rubber, textiles, other4 pieces, 22% of weight
The same kilo by weight
Where it all goes
Everything we collect is either recycled or sent to a sanitary landfill.
The team packs it into sacks on the beach, mostly reused feed bags, and the trucks bring every load back to our storage facilities.
- 1
Collect
The team picks up litter by hand along the coast.
- 2
Store
Hauls go to our storage facilities until there is a full load.
- 3
Sort
Anything that can be recycled is separated out.
- 4
Recycle
More than a third of the total weight has gone to recycling since 2021.
- 5
Landfill
Our team drives the rest to the sanitary landfill, about every second week.
Why not recycle more?
Most plastic pieces simply cannot be recycled. Sachets and wrappers are made of layers of different plastics and foil bonded together, while foam is light and bulky, with almost no value to recyclers. That is why we put as much effort into stopping plastic at the source.
Tonnes collected per year
- Recycled
- Sanitary landfill
Below the surface
Not all of it reaches the beach. Litter also settles on the reef, and our divers have recorded it as part of our reef surveys since 2018. In 2026 one of our research interns analysed more than 13,000 of those records and found debris up to ten times denser at some sites than at others, building up mostly near river mouths and the busy Malatapay market. Lost fishing gear behaves differently and tends to settle in deeper water. Read the report (PDF).
We follow the Green Fins code when we dive, keeping our hands off the reef with one exception: litter. Divers pick it up wherever they can do so without harming the surrounding coral.
Ghost nets are the worst of it. A lost or discarded fishing net caught on a reef keeps on fishing for years, trapping fish, crabs and sometimes turtles, and smothering the coral beneath it. When our divers find one, they cut it free a section at a time, taking care not to break the coral it is wrapped around, and bring it up to be disposed of with the rest.
Stopping plastic at the source
Clean-ups tackle plastic that is already loose in the environment. The lasting solution is less of it getting there in the first place.
Sea Camps
Young people from local communities who have attended our Sea Camps, held most years since 2019, often take part in our clean-up drives too.
Clean-up toolkit
Our free beach clean-up toolkit has what you need to organise a clean-up of your own, wherever you live.
Better buoys
We have replaced the foam buoys marking our marine protected areas with ones that last longer. Broken foam is the second most common thing we find on our beaches.
Responsibility is also moving upstream. The Philippines' Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022 requires large companies to recover a growing share of the plastic packaging they put on the market: 60% in 2026, rising to 80% by 2028.
Source
- Republic Act No. 11898, Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022.
Get involved
- Volunteer with us
Join beach and dive clean-ups alongside your reef surveys.
- Research with us
Interns and thesis students can work with our litter data, from what washes up where to microplastics in local fish.
- Partner with us
Companies can fund clean-ups and other conservation work as part of their CSR.
- Donate
Support our conservation work in southern Negros Oriental.