I often noticed that it was the sub-urban public places which always seemed to be polluted with plastic wrappers and all sorts of pollutants. Thus, In an attempt to make the city cleaner, me and my friends decided to drive by public places which we know are polluted and then collect the litter by hand. We started with the Dumas beach which is a very mystical location yet is always covered in trash. 

Learning objective 3:

The location we chose to clean is quite far from the city and because we planned to do activity early in the morning to avoid crowds and be safe during covid, it was necessary for us to plan the day beforehand and to arrange transportation for all of us. It took us a few days to recruit volunteers and plan how each one of us was independently going to come. We also had to collect the required resources like gloves, maskes, trash bags and sanitizers. Thus, we split responsibilities among ourselves.

Learning objective 5:

Cleaning a sub-urban area, like a beach is not a solo task. In order to cover enough ground to have a significant impact we need a group of volunteers and thus had to collaboratively work with effective time-management to clean as much of the beach as possible before crowds show up. Our collaboration began as we started looking for individual volunteers, then all of us had to communicate inorder to make a transport route to pick everyone up. At last, at the beach all of us made pairs and split, each pair had a trash bag and had to fill it completely. This strategy allowed us to do the most amount of work in the least amount of time. 

Learning objective 6:

This initiative was taken as a result of us acknowledging the rising issue of environmental and urban pollution. The increasing use of single use plastic has increased the scale of pollution in public places and it is our responsibility to keep these places clean. If pollution increases uncontrollably, it could lead to several other problems like water contamination, disease and wildlife endangerment. In order to tackle these issues we choose to clean the Dumas beach. 

Learning objective 7:

This activity was done during times of a global pandemic and even though the public places were open, it is our responsibility to stay home and curb the virus. At first we seemed to have appeared at an ethical impasse. However, the cleaning of the beach was also important so we came up with a solution. We would do this in the morning at 6am to avoid crowds, every volunteer would wear gloves and masks and remain a sufficient distance and we would follow all COVID guidelines in order to be safe. At last we made sure to do the right thing in both aspects and made sure our decisions were ethical.  

Through this experience, I learned that it is not that difficult to fulfill your social responsibility and it could actually be fun if you do it friends. I also learned the importance of collaboration and developed a few people skills.