The Beach Clean with No Trophy

The coastal volunteer group usually ended its beach clean by weighing each team's rubbish bags. The heaviest collection won a small wooden trophy. This made the morning lively, but Petra noticed that volunteers were leaving light pieces of plastic behind while searching for heavier bottles near the path.

She mentioned it at the next planning meeting. Some members defended the competition because it attracted families and friends. Petra agreed that the event should be enjoyable. However, she wondered whether their prize was encouraging people to do a different job from the one they had actually come to do.

For the next clean, they divided the beach into marked areas and asked each team to finish one section carefully. There would be no winning bag. Instead, volunteers could add unusual finds to a shared display after the organisers had checked them. The change produced a few disappointed jokes at the start.

By lunchtime, the display contained a toy wheel, a faded plastic flower and enough bottle caps to cover a tray. Volunteers compared stories rather than weights. One team stayed longer to finish its section, even though there was no prize for doing so. Petra put the wooden trophy in the equipment cupboard. They might use it again, but not for the heaviest bag.