WARNING: HELPING TO CLEAN UP IPANEMA BEACH CAN EXPOSE YOU TO DERISION, HOSTILITY AND AGGRESSION. 

Sunbathing on Ipanema beach on a Saturday and Sunday is no longer a pleasure unless your idea of pleasure is competing for a patch of sand with thousands of others and then lying surrounded by countless plastic cups, plastic bags, biscuit wrappers, beverage cans, plastic straws and even dirty nappies and sanitary towels while your ears are assaulted by the hubbub of beach vendors' cries, other beach-goers' raucous laughter and shouting and blaring music from sound systems.  How people can enjoy sitting on the beach in such conditions, surrounded by garbage and even decorate the sand with their own trash because they are too lazy to throw it in the garbage bins provided is beyond my understanding. 

Perhaps the above is to be expected in this Brave New World of complete environmental blindness and lack of personal and civic responsibility.
However, what you do not expect is to become the object of derision, hostility and aggression if you decide to try and clean up some of the trash yourself. 

Some three weeks ago, I went to the beach on a Saturday with my wife. Just before we left the beach, I decide to remove some of the nearby trash from the sand and waterline. I got an empty plastic ice bag and stuffed trash into it. As I approached the waterline, a group of some 6 or 7 drunken young men demanded insolently and belligerently that I remove their own plastic trash lying at their feet. Realising that they were deliberately provoking me, I responded politely that they could throw their trash in the garbage bins themselves. They insisted and when I refused, I became the target of verbal insults, derision, scorn and hostility. They kicked sand in my eyes and became threatening. I was reluctant to back down but since they were clearly bent on beating me up and I stood little chance of defending myself against a group of drunken yobs, I left the beach quickly with my wife. Needless to say, my wife and I found the whole experience traumatic and have not returned to the beach on a weekend. 
The moral of the story is that some people take pleasure in littering the beach with their muck and trash and resent anyone who tries to clean it up. 

RIO + 20  AND ARPOADOR + 20 

Rio + 20

Back in 1992, when I was called on to narrate the official video of the Eco-92 Global Forum in English, I believe that most people had high hopes that some definite effective measures would be taken  by government and industry to halt or at least seriously diminish the man-made pollution and consequent devastation of our natural environment. Twenty years have passed during which we have seen little more than posturing by governments and world leaders, who are evidently more concerned with preserving their own power structures and pandering to industrial lobby bodies than they are with taking any real stand in favour of the planet.

Arpoador + 20 


Yesterday, while world leaders tried to reach agreement on what to do about the devastation of the environment, beach-goers left 20 kilos of plastic garbage and assorted trash just on the water line of  Ipanema beach at Arpoador. It seems that the message is not getting through to those who carelessly leave their trash on the beach where the waves sweep it into the sea. I have a message for such people: Congratulations! You are contributing to the devastation of marine ecosystems! 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF LEAVING PLASTIC TRASH ON THE BEACH. 


"SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?", YOU MAY WELL ASK.  SOME SAY:  "I DO NOT LEAVE SO MUCH TRASH AND THE MUNICIPAL GARBAGE COLLECTORS ARE PAID TO PICK IT UP!"


WELL, IF YOU LEAVE YOUR BUNDLE OF TRASH NEAR OR ON THE WATERLINE, THE SEA WILL WASH IT AWAY INTO THE OPEN OCEAN BEFORE THE GARBAGE COLLECTORS CAN PICK IT UP AND THESE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES:


1). THE PLASTIC IS CARRIED AWAY BY OCEAN CURRENTS AND FORMS ENORMOUS PATCHES OF PLASTIC GARBAGE IN OCEAN GYRES.  Plastic leaches toxic chemicals such as Bisphenol A into the oceans. Fish eat minute pieces of plastic, mistaking them for plankton and sea birds swallow plastic. Thus, plastic enters the marine food chain.  Ultimately, this has a devastating effect not only on marine ecosystems but also on the health of humans who eat fish. See this:http://www.oceanfootage.com/stockfootage/Plastic


and also https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=mw#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=PHOTOS+OF+PLASTIC+TRASH+IN+THE+ATLANTIC&oq=PHOTOS+OF+PLASTIC+TRASH+IN+THE+ATLANTIC&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=hp.3...1791.13161.0.13552.39.37.0.2.2.0.341.9192.2-35j2.37.0...0.0.rn3IKKvNtkc&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=60909d0e42a1fcbc&biw=1634&bih=884

2). THE SOUTH ATLANTIC HAS A LARGE PLASTIC GARBAGE PATCH. SEE: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1629861724/another-garbage-patch-exploration-across-the-south

3). THE GARBAGE WE LEAVE ON OR NEAR THE WATERLINE ON THE BEACH LIKE THIS

IS TAKEN BY THE WAVES AND RISING TIDE AND ENDS UP IN THE OCEANS LIKE THIS.
 NEED I SAY MORE?

LET'S CLEAN UP BRAZIL

The  Projeto Limpeza na Praia do Instituto Ecológico Aqualung  (the Beach Clean-up Project of the Aqualung Ecological Institute) organised an event called "Vamos Limpar Brasil” (Let's Clean Up Brazil) for Saturday June the 2nd, 2012.

The clean-up was set to take place between 10:00 and 13:00 on the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, São Conrado, Barra da Tijuca, Sepetiba, Ilha de Paquetá, Maricá and Saquarema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Such an event is laudable. Periodical clean-ups are good but what is really needed is a Brazilian national effort to build public awareness about the consequences of leaving trash on the beach. We need the promotion of government campaigns on TV, in schools and in universities. 

I do my own single-handed clean-up 2 or 3 times a week on half of Ipanema beach, along the waterline. However, I fear that the effect on the mass of the general public is practically nil. In fact, you can collect the trash along the waterline and people see you doing it but continue to leave their trash as soon as you have passed by. The fact is that they are completely insensitive about the damage caused by trash on the beach. In some cases, it is pure selfishness. In other cases, it is pure ignorance. 

Although I usually do my clean-up on Ipanema beach at the end of the afternoon, I decided to do it earlier on Saturday and see how the organised clean-up was coming on.  I got to the beach about 11:00  but must confess that I personally did not see anyone collecting trash on the beach. 

I jogged down the waterline from a point opposite Rua Teixeira de Melo to Jardim De Allah. Although there were not many people on the beach, about 15 kilos of plastic and other trash had been left along the stretch between the low and high tide marks. The waves were already sweeping the trash into the sea.  You can reckon that the volume would have been 10 times that at the end of the day. 

This is a photo of the plastic bag I used, my gloves and the trash collected: 

 DOES SLAVERY STILL EXIST ? 

One day, a beachgoer, on seeing me collect the trash left on Ipanema beach, exclaimed: "Slavery still exists, my friend, didn't you know?" 

Like many others, myself included, he was affronted and indignant about the carelessness of other beachgoers who negligently leave their plastic and assorted trash and scraps of food on the sand of the beach. Such people evidently believe that there will always be someone servile to clean up the mess that they leave behind them.

This reminds me of the time that my black maid saw me cleaning the drain in the washing area of my apartment, removing dirt that had blocked it. She exclaimed: " Oh, Mr. Michael.*  Why are you doing a black man's work?” Shocked, I explained: "This is not work just for black people! I do this work myself whenever necessary." Although she was a negress herself, she showed a deep-seated preconception about the sort of work that people of Afro-Brazilian descent should do.

Maybe the lazy, careless beachgoers also believe that it is not up to them to remove and throw away their trash because that is a servile act. What a disgrace!

The work of the garbage collectors should be merely to collect the trash that people leave in the appropriate trashcans or garbage bins provided. They should not have to comb the entire beach with a rake to remove every piece of plastic and the scraps of food that lazy, careless beachgoers leave on the sand.

* Mr. Michael is characteristic of the way slaves in the deep south of the USA used to address their masters.  Normally, a person would say Michael (if on first name terms) or Mr. Walton or Sir, never Mr. Michael. 

BE A FRIEND OF THE GARBAGE COLLECTORS

On Saturday 26th of May 2012, I got to Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro at about 17:00 and decided to clean up the beach along the waterline from a point opposite Rua Farme de Amoedo up to Arpoador. There was not so much garbage as I had expected. The total amount collected along the waterline was about 35 kilos. On a bad day, it would have been twice that amount at least.

I met a nice young couple from the Czech Republic, who were sitting by the waterside. They were on holiday in Rio and said they were horrified by the amount of trash people left on the beach. They were taking their trash back to the hotel to dispose of it. If everyone took their trash home and disposed of it or threw it in the municipal garbage bins or trash cans, there would be no problem.

When I got to Arpoador, I met two municipal garbage collectors I know: William and Joaquim.  They were performing the thankless task of cleaning up the mess left by beachgoers. The other day William called me the Garbage Collectors’ Friend and said he wanted to tell a journalist he knows to do a report about me in tribute to my efforts. I said that it was the municipal garbage collectors who deserved the tribute not I. Can you imagine what Rio’s beaches and streets would be like without them?  We would be buried under mountains of plastic garbage and trash. We should all be friends of the garbage collectors. We should all throw our trash in the garbage cans or take it home and dispose of it. Is that too much to ask?

One day a beachgoer said he thought the municipal garbage collection service should just stop cleaning up the beaches for a while and let it mount up because perhaps people would then realize just how absurdly wrong it is to leave garbage on the beach.

At the end of the day, this is what the sand looks like at the edge of the beachfront and promenade: 

What kind of impression do scenes like this give of the Cidade Maravilhosa or the Marvellous City as Rio is called? 

On Monday the 21st of May, I expected there to be much less plastic garbage and rubbish on Ipanema beach due to the inclement weather for beachgoers. Arriving at the beach at 18:00, my hopes were dashed as I took in the unsightly spectacle I have to come to dread: the usual plastic cups, drinking straws, plastic bags etc. littering this beautiful beach. The beach had got no respite from the onslaught of garbage left by thoughtless beachgoers. From Casa Laura Alvim to Colegio São Paulo, I collected 30 kilos along the waterline. Along the rest of the sands up to Arpoador and Praia do Diabo, I collected a further 20 kilos, making a total of 50 kilos, including broken polystyrene iceboxes used by beach vendors of beverages. The large volume of tiny polystyrene granules that coated the tide line at Praia do Diabo bore witness to the insidious threat posed by polystyrene. This easily gets into the marine food chain and is extremely difficult to remove. How do I know how many kilos I collected? I use 20-kilo ice cube bags and fill them by compressing the garbage down by punching it. When brim full, each bag weighs 10 kilos or more. I filled and emptied 5 bags into the garbage cans that day. 

The amazing thing is that people often put their rubbish in supermarket bags and then just leave them on or near the waterline where the tide and waves take them into the open sea. All they had to do was walk a short distance to the municipal garbage cans, some only 20 or 30 paces away. This is a good example of the type of garbage left near the waterline:

 Take a look at an ice cube bag and and the type of rubbish I normally collect in such a bag: