On Sunday, 19 July 2026, more than 180 volunteers walked through the streets of Colombo and cleaned a stretch of Wellawatte Beach, collecting over 500 kg of waste and conducting a brand audit to trace the sources of plastic pollution along Sri Lanka’s coastline. The initiative, titled WAVES ’26, was jointly organized by the ZeroPlastic Community of The Open University of Sri Lanka, AIESEC in Kelaniya, and the Leo Club of the University of Moratuwa.

Over 180 volunteers collected more than 500 kg of waste in over 100 waste bags from Wellawatte Beach. A brand audit of the collected waste identified PepsiCo as the largest contributor at 20.2% of branded items, followed by Bing Chun (10.2%), The Coca-Cola Company (9.3%), and Cargills Group (6.5%).

From awareness walk to beach clean-up

The programme began at 8:30 AM with an awareness walk that started from St. Peter’s College, Colombo 04, drawing public attention to marine conservation and responsible environmental practices as volunteers moved through the neighbourhood. After arriving at the beach, participants took part in an icebreaker session before the clean-up began at 10:00 AM at Wellawatte Beach.

Working collectively across the beach, the volunteers removed and segregated waste, filling more than 100 waste bags with over 500 kg of material. The scale of the collection reflected both the severity of coastal waste accumulation and the capacity of organized volunteer action to address it directly.

Tracing pollution to its source through a brand audit

As part of the clean-up, volunteers conducted a brand audit on the collected waste, sorting and identifying branded items to determine which companies were the largest contributors to the plastic pollution found on the beach. The audit found that 20.2% of branded wa…