#TrashTag Challenge in Greece

29/9/2019

trashtag, beach clean up, live your myth

After 3 Days of beach clean up!

We see picking up trash (on the street, on a hike path/mountain trail) as a game. We collect so much plastic that when it's time to head back we ask other people's help to carry some of the trash bags we collected, we explain what we're doing and they start volunteering and contribute in their own way for a cleaner environment!

We were really thrilled hearing and seeing lots of #trashtag, and we said it's time for us to take on a whole beach clean up! So #TrashTag Challenge Accepted. We believe that we still have time to save the our planet if we all work together!

We saw this amazing beach with sea caves close to Athens in Greece but it has been abandoned for about 50 years or so. There are lots of garbage that washed ashore, they're even in the layers of the soil. There were so many take away cups from coffee shops, complete with straws! Coffee is great but the one time use plastic cups they come in, aren't. If everyone who buys coffee to go just take care where they throw their cups, it is already a big step in helping our environment.

Some of them crumble to the touch maybe because of long time sun exposure. We were even able to see which coffee shop people buy most from (even with a history chart on sale :P , remember the plastics was there for years!)
In the 15 bags of trash we collected, more than 50% are not thrown directly on the beach, they just ended up here over the years.

There were also lots and lots of plastic bottle caps, that even though they were there for so long, they are as tough as when you just bought them from the store.
Small nets are also a direct threat to fish life. We found things from plastic containers for machine oil (not empty) to a box of medicine pills (not expired) ^^.

Our morning view

We set up camp, prepared ourselves, and started cleaning!

This is the result of 3 days work! Still not 100% clean, most plastic, nets and big items ( such as whole car bumper!, 5 gallon water jugs, etc.) have already been removed. We have some more cleaning to do, slowly and surely we will get this place to welcome people for a swim or just to hangout.