Local Hero
At Society Marbella we champion those who give back to our community. To say thank you and highlight their efforts we have decided to take the time to talk to one local hero each month to help raise awareness for the deserving charities and organisations they spend their time supporting.
Meet Deirdre O´Regan
Can you share with us a little bit about the work you have been doing?
With so much plastic, wet wipes, cigarette butts and rubbish washing up and littering our beautiful beaches I felt I had to do something to help try and protect our environment so a couple of years ago I set up regular, monthly beach cleans at my workplace where likeminded work colleagues could volunteer a couple of hours to help clean up the two beaches by our resort, CLCWorld in Mijas Costa. In 2019 we collected a staggering 730 kilos of plastic and rubbish! Many volunteers brought along family, friends and their pooches too.
I set up “There is No Planet B” campaign to raise awareness in the workplace of the amount of plastic and single use items we were all consuming on a daily basis and so much rubbish ending up in our seas. Through everyone´s efforts and in a very short time, we managed to drastically reduce single use plastics and other disposables throughout our resorts and many adapted eco changes in their home lives as a result of the campaign.
The summer camp for staff´s children also ran weekly beach cleans and launched the Reduce, Reuse, Return, Recycle box where holidaymakers leaving the resort could drop off any unwanted beach items (e.g. buckets, spades) and new arrivals could pick up and reuse these items.
Why did you feel the need to do you bit?
We are all aware of the damage we are doing to our fragile earth and raising awareness and educating people on how to take care of our planet is critical for everyone.
What was your motivation to help out your local community in this way?
I love the ocean and all things nature and believe we all have a responsibility to take care of our beautiful planet.
How have you found the local community have reacted to your work?
Response to the ´There is No Planet B´ campaign and the beach cleans has been really positive – lots of senior management participation and many of the same volunteers turned up each month, sometimes bringing along a new volunteer.
What have you enjoyed most about your recent efforts?
Bringing together like minded individuals and their positiveness in doing their bit for the planet. (If everyone, globally, picked up just 3 pieces of rubbish off the beach imagine what a difference that would make!)
How can people join you and help?
We had just recommenced our 2020 beach cleans when Covid hit, but hope that we can start up again whenever we are back to “normal”.
What message would you share with people wanting to help in their local community but don’t know where to start?
Check out Facebook and join different environmental groups – there are plenty out there and any local events are usually well publicised. Mimoana (www.mimoana.com) is an excellent movement here on the Costa del Sol and in collaboration with local ayuntamientos hosts regular beach and costal cleans.
What are you hoping to achieve over the next 6 months?
I would love to have the beach cleans operational again so we can continue to clean up our oceans; raising awareness through education programmes and workshops on ways we can all help to save our seas and reduce pollution.
