Kon-Tiki teamed up with Trash Hero Thailand and participated in the 2015 Annual International Costal clean-up. 

This year we planned to focus on Railey beaches. We set of at 09.00 in the morning with longtail boats from Ao Nammao and reached Railey east with the sun out and ready to clean. Our team of Kon-Tiki staff proceeded to Railey west and other groups went to Phranang Beach and Railey East. Total we were about 50 people.

Amongst the items collected by our group were over 130 plastic bags, 250 bottle tops, 200 straws and 300 cigarette butts. Overall, the waste collected by Kon-Tiki alone was about 80kgs!

Trash Hero Thailand is run by volunteers who organize weekly clean-ups of various beaches throughout the area and collect vast quantities of rubbish of all shapes and sizes that have been carelessly discarded by others. They also travel to different schools and educate the kids all about the harmful effects of littering on not only the scenery of Thailand's beautiful beaches, but also on the devastating impact on the ocean and marine life.

Disposing of your waste takes only a small amount of effort and if everyone made this effort then trash would not have the harmful effect that it does so easily. Sure, you may have to walk about with an empty bottle or food container for a little longer but plastic will only ever breakdown into plastic and not dissolve like paper or an apple core.

So the next time you are in 7 eleven - please decline the straw, plastic lid and plastic bag. It is a small step, but in the right direction.