These community clean-ups are a primary activity of the Sustainable Maikhao Foundation (SMF), which she founded in 2020. What started as a passion in the pandemic has morphed into a multi prong and multiparty mission to help protect Phuket’s most valuable natural resource.
“Even though we can’t clean everything,” Michelle tells the volunteer groups, “the rubbish we collect in a typical cleanup can save a turtle, who could go on to lay 100 to 200 eggs.”
She then asks: “Did we make a difference?”
Tonnes of trash
This month, for the 300th time on beaches across greater Phuket, volunteer groups will shout “Save Our Oceans.”
These cumulative clean-ups over the past five years have removed more than 25 tonnes of rubbish from Phuket’s legendary beaches. This trash is sorted into 16 categories, weighed, recorded and photographed. About one-third of the garbage can be reused, recycled or upcycled into useful products. Other debris goes into the incinerator - if it arrives at the Phuket Integrated Solid Waste Management Plant before the daily incineration quota has been reached - or the landfill.
Also this month, which coincides with World Oceans Day (June 8) and World Environment Day (June 5), the SMF celebrates its fifth year of promoting environmental awareness, education and action on the island. On the eve of Sustainable Maikhao’s anniversary, I sat down with Michelle over foamy cappuccinos to understand the Foundation’s priorities over the next five years.
Creating dedicated and full-time beach cleaning teams during the monsoon season is at the top of her expansive, colour-coded to-do list.
During the monsoon season, powerful currents carry a mix of debris, discarded waste and natural driftwood across the Andaman Sea, depositing them onto Phuket’s otherwise pristine shores. The seasonal shift reshapes the coastline and highlights the ongoing challenge of marine pollution, as plastic waste, fishing gear and other refuse accumulates along the beaches.
To tackle this environmental problem, and to support unemployed or underemployed tourism sector workers in the off season, SMF is working toward creating an alliance among hotels, the government, schools and the local community. This alliance would directly support and enable dedicated, full-time beach clean-up teams throughout the rainy season.
Educating the next generation
Eco education plays a vital role in helping to protect Phuket’s beaches. Fostering awareness to empower people to make sustainable choices starts in schools. This year SMF has led ocean conservation workshops, beach cleanups, and project implementation with a mix of mostly international primary and secondary schools, as well as overseas schools who conduct field trips to Phuket.
Later this year, an effort is underway to bring environmental and English workshops to local schools. Bangkok Hospital Network is helping to raise funds for this initiative through their monthly expat markets. The aspiration is that environmental education will be integrated into the local curriculum. Exuding contagious conviction to protect our marine environment, Michelle tells me: “Educating the next generation is crucial. It produces a long-term ripple effect.”
To further the Foundation’s educational mission, there are ambitions to create a dedicated Recycling and Learning Center. This space would have multiple uses beyond offering convenient facilities for workshops. Along with efforts to widen the network of recycling partners, a bespoke center would help expand the types of rubbish that can be recycled, such as crushing broken bottles into sand. This dedicated facility would improve awareness that rubbish is a resource that can transform into “useful products, rather than ending up in landfill,” Michelle informs.
No butts on the beach
For the next high season, SMF will launch a campaign against cigarette butts on the beach. “During beach cleanups, we find so many cigarette butts,” she observes. “Most people think that it’s only a small piece of litter and that it won’t impact the environment. However, cigarette butts take years to biodegrade while their toxic chemicals seep into the sand.”
Collaborating with students from UWC Thailand and their youth-led eco group Plastic Free Phuket, the Foundation aims to provide hotels and beach clubs with awareness signs - designed by the students - to encourage responsible disposal of cigarette butts.
Nurturing Maikhao into a community-based ecotourism destination is a longer-term aspiration, Michelle explains. “If the natural spaces can be developed in a way such that the tourists want to visit, and locals make money, it helps to preserve green space and benefits everyone.”
A Difference?
Throughout my lengthy conversation with Michelle, my thoughts kept gravitating to that penetrating question which she has asked each of the 8,000 beach clean-up volunteers since SMF founded: “Did we make a difference?”
In the past five years, a mountain of rubbish - more than 25,000 kgs - has been removed from Phuket’s beaches. But that’s just a number, albeit a staggering figure.
Perhaps the real difference is more intangible and goes beyond pristine beaches.
Physically picking up and removing garbage produces a mindset shift, Michelle explains. “It changes the way we think about rubbish, and plastics especially, and often leads to sustainable behavioral changes.”
And that may be the biggest difference.
The Sustainable Maikhao Foundation welcomes interested corporate partners and volunteers to join the ongoing effort to connect and empower the community to preserve Phuket’s natural environment. For more information please visit: https://sustainablemaikhaofoundation.org/