BEACH CLEAN UP

1)      La Grazia, Parghelia.

Our first clean up was carried out in the area of La Grazia, in Parghelia, Calabria.

Volunteers met in the afternoon and dedicated themselves to cleaning the beach, focusing mainly on collecting small plastic fragments and everyday waste (bottles, cans, packaging of various kinds), as the beach is very busy during the day.

This clean up was sponsored by the Municipality of Parghelia and enjoyed the support of local merchants and managers of the lidos, who provided, in addition to their participation, useful tools such as rakes and useful indications on the areas of the beach on which to focus during the collection of waste so as to optimize our action.

2)      La Tonnara/Scittareu.

Our second clean up was implemented in a rocky area that is exposed to strong currents and therefore full of miscellaneous trash brought in by the sea during storm surges. It is a very little frequented bay because it is difficult to reach and moreover poorly maintained, as there are no working groups to take care of maintenance and cleaning.

The amount of plastic was so excessive infact we had filled numerous bags. To dispose of the ferrous and rusty waste, we enlisted the help of the resort, which supported us with the hoist. Again, we obtained the sponsorship of the municipality of Parghelia, which was responsible for retrieving the bags and disposing of the collected waste.

3) Spiaggia dell’Occhiale, Tropea (by boat).

For this clean up we took advantage of the availability of the boat rental company, which provided us with a boat, to reach the "Occhiale" cove in Tropea. This is a small, almost unknown beach that is sparsely frequented even by locals. Here, during the winter, several kilos of polystyrene settle, and it is on the collection of this material fragments that we mainly focused during our intervention. This cleanup action was very strenuous and required intense teamwork to separate the wooden materials from the plastic fragments and especially from the styrofoam which was one with the vegetation: styrofoam like sand. Furthermore, the amount of rusty iron we collected was huge.

We were able to complete the cleanup of this cove before sunset, so we had loaded all the garbage onto the boat and we proceeded, therefore, to the collection point that was indicated to us by the municipality of Tropea, from which we had patronage for our activity.