The students at Sandnes Primary School live on the island of Tromøy, part of Arendal municipality. They feel pretty close to the sea. And they don’t like all the plastic debris that constantly washes up on their shores.

So when they had an opportunity recently to help clean up a local beach, they were eager to get to work.

The Norwegian Government has committed to reducing plastic consumption and waste. Together with Hold Norge Rent (Keep Norway Beautiful), a volunteer civil society organisation, they organize a National Beach Clean-up Day every year. It’s part of a global campaign led by the Ocean Conservancy.

With almost 5,000 cleanup actions registered (more than 50% increase from the previous year) and 90,000 volunteers this year's Beach Cleanup Week has been an astounding success. Joan Fabres and I joined the Sandnes school activities as part of the organization’s continuing efforts to raise awareness about the scourge of marine plastic.