Scores of people, including children who were part of the King’s Baton Relay of the Commonwealth Games, held a clean-up from the Sheraton Apia to Moata’a mangroves on Wednesday.

The relay, which involves 72 batons sent to all Commonwealth countries, gives each country one week to carry out its run. The main theme for this year’s baton is cleaning up plastic to prevent it from entering the sea and protecting marine life.

“What we want to do before the Commonwealth Games in July this year is pick up one million pieces of plastic to stop them from going into the sea,” said Raema Von Reiche. “We cannot get rid of plastic completely, but we have to prevent it from reaching the ocean. That’s the theme for today.”

Volunteers, including many children, are collecting plastic on the beach to prevent turtles and fish from ingesting it.

Day one of the clean-up started on Monday, with nearly 100 people taking part, walking from Mulinu’u back to the fish market. Many organisations were involved in the effort. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) collected about one truckload of rubbish. The waste was sorted into plastic, aluminium, and glass, and the official Commonwealth Sports form will verify the amount of plastic collected, with more added on from the Wednesday clean-up.

Most volunteers are sportspeople from basketball, netball, golf, tennis, and swimming.  Many of whom are coming together to teach the next generation not to throw plastic into the sea.

Von Reiche, Chef de Mission for the Team Samoa and one of the clean-up organisers, urged residents to change their mindset about littering.

“Stop throwing it on the street. When you finish eating, don’t leave your rubbish on the side of the road. Pick it up and put it in the bin, because that rubbish will go to Tafaigata to the landfill, and it won’t end up in the sea,” she said.