Outraged
at the ever-growing volume of plastic garbage and assorted rubbish that
beachgoers leave on Rio de Janeiro's beaches, I decided to take direct personal
action in 2010 and started cleaning part of Ipanema beach along the stretch of
sand between the low tide and high tide marks.
Garbage left along this stretch
is taken out to sea by waves and the rising tide before the municipal garbage
collectors can collect it at the end of the day. They make a sterling effort
but cannot keep up with the volume of garbage simply left on the sand by
people. Quite apart from being an eyesore and aesthetically ugly, this garbage
is very damaging to marine ecosystems.
At
first, I confined myself to cleaning up the beach in a 20-metre radius around
where I would sit. Soon, I extended the range of collection along the waterline
from a point opposite Rua Teixeira de Melo up to Arpoador rocks. About 2
or 3 times a week, I run up the sand to Arpoador, collecting garbage as I go
and throwing it in the municipal garbage cans/dustbins.
On
a sunny day in the high season, I collect about 70 to 80 kilos of plastic and
assorted garbage along this stretch. The worst points in terms of concentration
of garbage are situated opposite Rua Teixeira de Melo and at Arpoador.
The garbage collected includes the ubiquitous
plastic water bottles, plastic supermarket bags, plastic straws and bottle
tops, plastic cups, PET beverage bottles, beverage cans, biscuit wrappers,
polystyrene food packaging, broken surfboards, broken glass bottles,
flip-flops, chicken bones and even syringes (some containing blood), dirty
diapers (nappies), condoms and sanitary towels. I use gloves because of the danger of contamination.
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