The recent heavy rains caused dunes at an old landfill site to burst open, spilling litter onto the beach at Witsand in Cape Town.
Shark Spotters, residents and City officials spent the weekend trying to clean up the litter.
As well as clearing litter, the Shark Spotters team also installed nets further up in the dunes to trap any more rubbish from coming down to the beach.
City Coastal Management manager Gregg Oelofse told the Cape Argus that the landfill site had serviced Scarborough, Kommetjie, Ocean View and Misty Cliffs in the 1960s and 1970s.
“For the past 20 years, we have been managing the windblown sands and keeping a cap on the landfill site. We keep the sand dunes on top so it does not get exposed. However, the unexpected high volume of rainfall in Kommetjie on Thursday created a kind of sheet run-off across the beach, which exposed the cap of the landfill site,” said Oelofse.
This is said to be the worst breach of the dump in 20 years and the effect on marine life will be significant.