Yinson’s newly opened Miri office in Sarawak recently partnered with Reef Check Malaysia to spearhead an office-wide beach and dive clean-up in conjunction with the International Coastal Clean-up Day (ICC Day) as part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts.
Yinson’s participation in the event saw a total of 40 individuals, consisting of Yinson employees and their family members, removing more than 1,000 items of rubbish from a beach in Miri and ghost nets from a well-known dive site just outside of the city.
The beach clean-up took place at the Piasau Boat Club, along Miri’s Piasau Recreational Forest Reserve. Armed with biodegradable bags, gloves and tongs, the team scoured the beach and collected a large amount of waste that had washed up, including:
> 360 plastic bags
> 239 food wrappers, food containers and all kinds of single-use plastic utensils
> 256 plastic bottles and beverage cans
> 167 other things including cigarette butts, plastic toys, broken fishing gear, Styrofoam floaters and even tyres.
According to Yinson Lavender Operations Base Manager James Melling, “We filled up an entire 3-tonne lorry with all the rubbish that was collected, mainly plastic bottles! That is a lot for just a 2-hour collection.”
On top of that, 10 divers headed out to Nemo City, a popular dive site among the locals, and extracted over 10kg worth of rubbish, mostly consisting of ghost nets and plastic debris. Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. These nets are often nearly invisible under the sea in the dim light, and are usually left tangled on coral reefs or drifting in the open sea. These nets are extremely harmful to the ocean ecosystem as they can destroy coral reefs and entangle all kinds of marine life, trapping and sentencing them to a slow and painful death.
Although it was tiring work, the Yinsonites were happy and inspired at the end of the day to do their part to combat marine debris and plastics pollution.
FPSO Helang Operations Manager Bogdan Lefter said, “We are all happy to have participated on the first environment conservation activity sponsored by Yinson in Sarawak. The reefs and beach cleaning activities have been aligned with the Miri Base Office opening and FPSO Helang arrival and installation in Sarawak. We are committed to continue with our environment protection and humanitarian activities under the sustainability part of the company’s core values.”
The Miri office is the first of three Yinson offices worldwide to participate in this global clean-up initiative. Yinson Kuala Lumpur and Singapore offices’ beach clean-ups are scheduled to take place in mid-October 2019.
