Tour Guide, Azores Islands, Portugal
| 1 mins read
The vast amount of debris and other pollutants accumulated in the sea has become a problem of great concern in the last few decades, affecting not only the marine animals’ health but also our own. This pollution moves through the trophic levels, thus arriving at us through the food that we eat. Marine ecosystems are also key carbon’s absorbers and climate change mitigators, therefore becoming relevant to protect them!
In this event, a total of 19 persons collected up to 140 kg of trash in 1h20! Good job, everybody! The garbage was mainly plastics such as bottles and lids, many pieces of Styrofoam and polyurethane foam, and fishing gear and Covid medical material, such as masks. Other things like cigarette butts, shoe soles and many medical glass flasks were gathered as well. The most surprising found were iron and a barbecue grill.
It is essential to reduce the use of plastic, recycle properly… and be careful not to lose the sanitary masks used daily!
The information about the rubbish collected in this coastal cleanup, like the previous ones, was registered in the Life IP Azores Natura Project to keep track of our efforts.