Over 800 children and volunteers from Hong Kong and Macau created a “Lap Sap Chung,” or “Trashzilla,” on Repulse Bay Beach on Thursday morning. The iconic monster feeds off plastic trash.

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Trashzilla. Photo: Ocean Recovery Alliance/Malibu Foundation/Spectral Q/Alastair Gray Photography.

The image acts as “a reminder to all to keep the waters clean from plastic pollution that endangers sea life and the health of the ocean,” said organisers of the Kids Ocean Day.

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Trashzilla. Photo: Ocean Recovery Alliance/Malibu Foundation/Spectral Q/Alastair Gray Photography.

The event on Thursday was the 4th Kids Ocean Day event in Hong Kong.

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A drawing. Photo via Doug Woodring.

The image of the monster was created by Ty Curnow, aged 9, of the International School of Macao.

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Doug Woodring, co-founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, said that “we can do more to keep our waters and streets clean, educating the public that plastic pollution thrown onto streets also pollutes our waters as it is washed into storm drains which lead directly to the ocean.”

According to a report by NGO Living Seas Hong Kong this week, styrofoam is also a major culprit in contaminating the eastern waters of Hong Kong.

chantal yuen

Chantal Yuen

Chantal Yuen is a Hong Kong journalist interested in issues dealing with religion and immigration. She majored in German and minored in Middle Eastern studies at Princeton University.