BEACH HUSBANDRY 
What we need is Beach Husbandry.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines husbandry as 
"the control or judicious use of resources: CONSERVATION".

The shameful littering of our beaches with plastic bags, plastic cups, plastic straws, empty plastic water bottles, biscuit wrappers, plastic containers, food remains, polystyrene and aluminium takeaway food boxes, empty beer bottles, empty beverage cans, diapers and sanitary towels can hardly be described as judicious. In cities like Rio de Janeiro, the seaside and beaches represent an extremely important resource for the tourism industry. Many foreign and Brazilian tourists to whom I have spoken when I clean the shoreline are horrified by the volume of ugly trash left on Ipanema beach. 

The ocean, into which the shoreline trash and garbage is swept by waves and the incoming tide, represents a vital resource for fishing and its preservation ensures marine ecological equilibrium. Beachgoers are not only trashing the beach. They are trashing the oceans. 

The above photo shows just a small part of the garbage, plastic bags, disposable cups, empty mineral water bottles, empty beverage containers, Coca-Cola bottles, aluminium foil take-away food containers and biscuit wrappers left by beach-goers on February the 9th 2020, before the Covid-19 outbreak.

I removed this litter that was left near the water's edge on this small section of Ipanema beach. The incoming tide and waves would have swept all this into the ocean before the municipal garbage collectors could have removed it. 

I collected all the plastic trash, garbage and empty beer bottles that had been left on or near the water's edge on about one quarter of Ipanema beach. The final volume of about 60 kilos is shown in the photo below. 

 

People say they want everything to go back to normal when the Pandemic is over. If  "going back to normal" means turning Ipanema Beach into a garbage dump again, I hope we never go back to "normal".