Clean-up Case Studies
Underwater Clean Up - Dive Machine Dive Centre, Tonbridge
Tell us about your event:
This is something that we have been doing every year for the past seven years as part of project Aware.
It is a clean up of the diving lake and the surrounding land at Leybourne lakes country park. There are about
35 people taking part today.
How did you get the volunteers involved?
The volunteers here today are friends, family and fellow divers from our dive shop. Everyone was keen to get
involved with the clean up as they could get in a dive whilst contributing to the environment they make use of
so regularly.
How did you turn your event into a clean up?
We provided a free barbeque and home made apple pie! We also put up a display of past events and provided
prizes for the most unique or interesting items pulled out of the lake. This year it was a plastic but
realistic skull- although to be honest it had been placed there previously by a diver as a point of interest
for other divers.
What else is in the lake?
Features of the lake are an orange BMW and a collection of garden gnomes.
What made you get involved with the clean ups in the first place?
It was a personal awareness of the need to help clean up and take responsibility for the environment
we live in. The environment can be a delicate thing: if we do not look after it, who will? By doing
and promising this we hope to encourage others to do the same.
Where else have you cleaned up?
One week a couple of years back we did a clean up here at Leybourne lakes, another in Sheerness which
involved 140 school children and yet another at Red County, a dive site in the Red sea, Egypt.
How have Clean Kent helped you?
Clean Kent in association with Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council have been great. Clean Kent attended
the event and provided all the equipment and arranged disposal of the rubbish collected. They also helped
in getting the BBC to attend as well as the Kent Messenger newspaper. They are always available on the phone
if needed.
