Sustainable Coastlines is a grassroots charity on a mission to enable people to look after the coastlines and waterways we all love. They deliver coastal clean-up events, educational programmes, public awareness campaigns, and riparian planting projects.
Sustainable Coastlines began life organising large-scale beach clean-ups. While there is huge value in removing litter from our marine environments, Sustainable Coastlines saw that it was not a solution in itself. To truly make a difference to plastic pollution the focus needs to be on behaviour change.
The charity turned to education, creating ‘Love Your Coast’, a programme incorporating an engaging presentation on plastic pollution designed to inspire behaviour change. A Love Your Coast presentation accompanies every beach clean-up. As people remove items from the beach, they make the connection with how they use these items in their day-to-day lives. Sustainable Coastlines provides them with the tools to transition to a life less reliant on plastic.
As part of Jenkins Trust’s contribution, between 16 October and 23 November 2020, 22 classrooms at Auckland schools — 1414 children in total — were treated to a Love Your Coast presentation from Sustainable Coastlines’ engaging staff. Schools included Paremata School, Wakaaranga Primary, Henderson Intermediate School, Rutherford College, Te Huruhi Primary School, and Fossil Bay Primary School.
Love Your Coast engages students at their level, educating them on plastic pollution and inspiring them to take action at home and at school.
