MOSSEL BAY NEWS - When the volunteers of The Stranded Marine Animal Rescue Team (S.M.A.R.T.) decided to enter a float in the 2019 Dias & Port Festival street parade, they wanted to convey a special message.
Their float was aptly named “A whale of waste” and a clear anti-plastic pollution message was conveyed.
The S.M.A.R.T. members had been collecting plastic bottles and it was quite alarming how quickly enough bottles were received for the float. A frame was built with PVC pipes and the bottles were strung together with fishing line. The ventral grooves of the whale were made out of newspaper and the eyes were the bottom sections of two litre soda bottles.
More than 400 bottles were used in this project and the pre-assembling by mastermind Carly Marsh took two weeks. The volunteers worked for about six hours to do the final assembly and décor.
It took a team of passionate and concerned Smarties (as they call themselves) to plan, build and win the first prize for the best float in the 2019 parade. The prize money will be used for much-needed stranding equipment.
S.M.A.R.T., a non-profit organisation, has been operational since 2015 as an emergency stranding network from Wilderness to Gouritz River Mouth and is based in Mossel Bay. It is also the second year that S.M.A.R.T. has won the first prize in the float competition.
After the parade, the float was dismantled and everything, from the bottles to the fishing line, were put in bags and taken to a recycling collection point.
Please re-think, re-use and recycle, S.M.A.R.T. asks.
Some of the S.M.A.R.T. volunteers with council members and their float, "A whale of waste", which won first prize.
The S.M.A.R.T. volunteers dissembled their float and all materials went to a recycling depot.
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