Monday 22nd October 2018
153 KG OF WASTE COLLECTED AT EL TORO BEACH AWARENESS AND CLEAN-UP DAY
The Palma Aquarium Foundation participates with volunteers in the Day organised by the Calvià Town Hall
Calvià Town Hall, with the participation of Palma Aquarium Foundation, Port Adriano and Calvià 2000, held on Sunday an awareness and clean-up day at El Toro beach.
The objective of this initiative, which was attended by the deputy mayor for Urban Planning, Economy and Trade and councillor of El Toro area, Marcos Pecos; and the councillor for Commerce, Natural and Urban Environment and Heritage, Francisca Muñoz, is not only to clean the beach but to raise awareness on the state of the seabed on the Calvià coast, in addition to the problem posed by waste to the natural environment, especially plastics and microplastics. For this reason, the Palma Aquarium Foundation has given two workshops, one of them consisted of a marine fauna mock rescue, and in the other they were able to discover the invertebrates that inhabit the Mediterranean, in addition to carry out a sampling the extracted waste.
In this performance, 153.2 kg of waste have been collected, including plastic, metal, paper, glass and other types of waste. For instance, 1,394 units of plastics and microplastics, 20 glass residues, or more than 1,000 units of paper and cardboard as cigarettes butts, amongst others, were collected.
The clean-up has been carried out thanks to the participation of about 62 volunteers (23 minors and 39 adults) from different points of the island and staff of the Natural and Urban Environment Department of Calvià Town Hall. Calvià 2000 has collaborated in the cleaning day with the waste transport and Port Adriano has provided food and drink to the participants.
The Calvià Town Hall's Natural and Urban Environment Department has planned several actions where awareness raising is combined with beach cleanings, a way to better understand the operation of the coast and the consequences of not respecting the natural environment.