With its white sand and iconic views, Camps Bay often appears pristine from a distance. But a closer look reveals the small fragments of waste that accumulate along the shoreline: bottle caps, plastic fragments, and other debris carried in by wind and currents.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!On 7 March, Sentinel Ocean Alliance hosted a community beach cleanup at Camps Bay, bringing together more than 90 volunteers committed to protecting the coastline. The event was supported by The Lab, who provided products and prizes for participants.
Community Action for the Coast
Volunteers from across Cape Town joined the cleanup, working together to remove litter and microplastics from the beach and surrounding areas. Partners, including Sociable, also supported the event by providing prizes for participants.
The cleanup also included 27 participants from Sentinel Ocean Alliance’s youth leadership programme. The three-year programme supports young people who have progressed through Sentinel’s ocean education initiatives, helping them deepen their understanding of marine ecosystems while building leadership and environmental advocacy skills.
“Community cleanups are powerful because they bring people into direct relationship with the ocean,” says Jethro Perry, Coastal Cleanup Coordinator at Sentinel Ocean Alliance. “When people spend time caring for these spaces together, they begin to see how their actions can make a real difference.”
More Than a Cleanup
After the cleanup, volunteers gathered on the grass near the tidal pool to share lunch and swim together. Moments like these reinforce the deeper purpose behind the work: building a community of people who feel connected to the ocean and motivated to protect it.
Through initiatives like these, Sentinel Ocean Alliance continues to bring communities together to care for the coastline and inspire the next generation of ocean stewards. For The Lab, the decision to keep coming back is simple. The brand was built on the idea that looking after what you own changes the way you see the world around you. When people clean, protect, and extend the life of the things they wear, they move differently through the spaces they occupy too.
The same instinct applies here: if you value the places you spend time in, you should take responsibility for them.