Fiumicino: A Christmas tree decorated with marine waste has been installed on the beach.

The idea came from the mayor's delegate for bathing policies and is aimed at raising awareness among the younger generation. Instead of colored ribbons and balls, bottles and old containers washed up on the shore by the tides were used.

CHRISTMAS TREE PLASTIC WASTE SEA

Bottles and plastic containers, but also old shoes, which are transformed into decorations and baubles. In Fiumicino, in the province of Rome, a bizarre Christmas tree with the many waste that recent storm surges have brought to the shore. The aim is to raise awareness among the new generations about the importance of preserve the environment and, specifically, protect the greatest heritage of towns like Fiumicino: the sea.

CHRISTMAS TREE PLASTIC WASTE SEA

The idea came from the mayor of Fiumicino's delegate for bathing policies, Toni Quaranta, which almost as a joke has begun to decorate two long branches that are located close to the Mare Nostrum dune between Focene and Fregene. A stretch of coast that, among other things, has long been struggling with the serious erosion problem.

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PLASTIC WASTE CHRISTMAS TREE MARE2

FIUMICINO CHRISTMAS TREE

Quaranta imagined this Christmas symbol as a 'Totem' to make people think. "More than a Christmas tree, I would interpret it as a plastic sacrifice to the sea" he explained to Ansa. The delegate hopes that "the sea will appreciate the gesture and help us have a less stormy winter." In addition to Quaranta, some of his friends, residents of neighboring Focene, also worked on the tree, helping him collect the plastic that regularly invades this stretch of coast after storm surges and the flooding of the Tiber. "I would like," the delegate added to the agency, "to have a tree like this at every point along the coast, above all to give a message and a signal to children, which are our future, and to make the coast cleaner."

The photos are taken from the Facebook page of Toni Quaranta.

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