Students clean up Songjeong beach

Students and teachers from Busan International Foreign School (BIFS) clean the rocky shore area of Songjeong Beach, Busan, Thursday. / Courtesy of BIFS

By John Redmond

Students and teachers from Busan International Foreign School (BIFS) participated in a massive cleanup of Songjeong Beach, Busan, June 8.

Some 50 Grade Nine and Grade 10 students and six teachers cleaned the rocky shore area of Songjeong, a popular surfing beach and destination for Korean visitors and international tourists, as part of the school’s connection with the Haeundae-gu Volunteer Center.

From 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., they combed the beach for litter and placed the material in bags provided by the center. The city was responsible for removing the bags.

“The students found bottles, cigarette butts, fishing nets and even a refrigerator, that were removed by students custom-made carriers. But the most prevalent beach litter was expanded polystyrene foam, which the BIFS students found in quantities ranging from giant polystyrene floats larger than a person, to tiny polystyrene beads that littered the beach by the millions,” the school said in a statement.

BIFS students and teachers have been doing cleanups around Busan for years, and achieved some renown in Korea after Super Typhoon Chaba for helping to initiate beach cleanup efforts.

“The education of kids is the way forward. If you don’t educate the kids about litter they won't take care of the planet,” said BIFS science teacher Gillian Vaughan.