CSC Ketam Coastal Clean-Up – 30 August 2025

Trash for Sail: Clean Up at Pulau Ketam

The sight of trash on our beaches is a familiar and distressing one, with marine litter posing a grave threat to wildlife and ecosystems through entanglement and ingestion. Most people have probably seen videos to this effect. In addition, marine litter breaks down into harmful pollutants, like microplastics, that eventually enter the food chain, impacting both animals and humans.

I used to feel powerless and helpless to effect positive change in our marine environment. I thought it was an impossible exercise, like trying to boil the ocean. After my first cleanup on Ketam (March 2025), I realised that we can have an immediate and tangible impact on local ecosystems like Pulau Ketam. In that one afternoon, we cleared over 600kg of trash and made a visible dent in Ketam’s coastline. It can feel like a Sisyphean task, but it doesn’t have to be.

I jumped on the chance to return to Pulau Ketam for another cleanup! I was especially heartened by the willingness of our community to step forward and volunteer to do their part - this run of Ketam Cleanup was heavily oversubscribed! It is a strong reminder that we are not alone in our love of the environment, that many have a strong desire to do right by her, and that there is hope that we can fight back the scourge of marine litter in our environment. Many hands make light work and this especially rings true for beach cleanups! We picked 1620kg of litter in this iteration, more than double of our previous round!

Another unique feature of Ketam Cleanup is that it is significantly harder to reach the island. Thus, it is relatively underserved compared to beaches on the mainland and tends to collect a lot of litter on its mangrove beach. This creates an opportunity to introduce people to sailing and boating during the cleanup as well! I crewed on a small J24 sailboat, Jangan Main Main, (literally) showing the ropes to some new participants while getting us to our target location.

Ketam Cleanup has been a wonderful event and has become something I look forward to! It’s hard work for a hard problem, but we are chipping away at it and we’re not going to stop. Come join us at our next cleanup!