How to Keep Beaches Clean

Start with some data and carve it into your head. Un cigarette butt: about 5 years. A banana peel: two years.. A lighter: 100 to 1000 years. A paper handkerchief: at least three months.These are just a few examples of the time it takes to dispose of items that are very frequently abandoned on beaches. An uncivilized act, and a huge waste, for everyone, and not just for the environment around us. A waste we can avoid by starting with the simplest things, those that each of us can do.

Index of topics

Plastic

Let's also be careful not to let it go into the water. plastic takes a long time to break down from the environment. Furthermore, and this is the main reason not to leave plastic waste on the beach, animals could mistake bags or bottle caps for food and ingest them. This could cause death by suffocation.

Cigarette butts

Smokers should be aware that a single cigarette butt pollutes 1 square meter of beach. Furthermore, if you leave your lighter in the sand, it takes over 100 years to break down. Bringing an ashtray or container to dispose of cigarette butts might be a good solution.

Sun creams

Le sun creams, although useful in protecting us from the sun's rays, they are harmful to the marine ecosystem. This is because they dissolve in the water when we bathe. We should try to choose sunscreens with a good INCI and avoid applying it immediately before bathing.

Eco-sustainable showers

When we shower on the beach we do not use shampoo and shower gel which may contain pollutants. Fresh water is enough to remove salt from the skin.

Bonfire on the beach

A very common custom is to roast meat and vegetables on the sand. There's often a pine forest behind the beach. Let's try to respect the surrounding environment.

Souvenir

Shells, grains of sand, hermit crabs. It's best to leave all the animals and plants we find where they are: they are part of the ecosystem.

Gita in barca

If you take a boat trip respect the rules and don't arrive on the shore with the engine running. Find out about the regulations in force regarding boats first.

Urla

Don't shout, Don't play loud music and try to be respectful and polite. Beaches are home to birds and often protected species that could be disturbed by your loud noises.

Don't fish

Shore fishing is prohibited, and many spearfishing and trawling practices are completely illegal. Check before diving.

Pets

If you have animals Remember that on many beaches, dogs are not allowed outside designated areas. Always check before venturing onto the beaches with your four-legged friends. Also, remember to bring appropriate poop collection equipment.

Dirty beaches

If you read it studio that the European Commission commissioned the company ArcadisTo understand who and how pollutes the Mediterranean sea and beaches, you'll make some very interesting discoveries. The first: unlike the oceans, which are polluted by garbage arriving from Asia and Africa, In the Mediterranean, we produce the waste on the beachesThey don't come from far away, but from our hands as residents of a specific area or as tourists. Uncivilized people, in both cases.

Beach pollution

Second interesting discovery: in the face of a monstrous figure, a truly abnormal waste, 701 pieces of waste every 100 meters of beach, in first place among the objects abandoned on the beaches, destined to end up in the sea, there are the food trays and plastic tableware (17 percent). We use the beach like a diner, without even bothering with the minimum effort: taking a tray and putting it in a trash can. Unfortunately, the coronavirus has frozen the entire plastic-freezing process, especially for this type of food-related product, and so we can only hope that there will be more attention in the year of holidays "everyone in Italy".

Waste Management

Third discovery: after plastic trays and dishes, there are, in order, cigarette filters (14 percent), caps (14 percent), bags (5 percent) and cotton buds (5 percent). At this point we give you a useful advice If you happen to encounter a marine polluter, imagine a guy who takes a cigarette butt and sticks it in the sand. Approach him, politely, and ask the following question: "Excuse me, but would you do this at home?"

Beaches filthy with plastic

Statistics clearly show that our beaches are dirty first and foremost plastic bags, which we should use less and less and dispose of better to allow its reuse. Added to the environmental damage is the economic waste: in Europe, on average, every year we spend over 400 million euros to clean up the beaches from the various waste items abandoned by vacationers. And despite the regulations, directives, and fines, we can only appeal to our civic sense, without which we will never see cleaner seas and beaches.

What are the most polluted beaches in Italy?

In every region, there are beaches that are more polluted than others, where the amount of waste is greater. And where environmental risks for beachgoers increase. Legambiente has done a good job of field reconnaissance, and here Find the results of the most polluted beaches in Italy, region by region.

How to Keep Beaches Clean: A Handbook