Medplastic “Trash Hunters 2021”: a sea of reports against plastic

There are many reports and plastic collections around the Italian coasts with which you are responding to our Medplastic “Trash Hunters” 2021 campaign. An important sign that the preservation of our seas is a key issue that is close to everyone’s heart.

The people who are passionate about the sea and especially its protection are making themselves heard and have already begun to respond en masse to the campaign Medplastic “Trash Hunters” organized as it is every year by the Journal of Sailing together with Barche a Motore magazine and Medplastic, the association created in 2018 to safeguard the Mediterranean. The purpose of the initiative is to give visibility to your testimonies of real “plastic hunters” and your concrete operations to clean up shorelines, coastlines, beaches, sandy shores, but also stretches of sea during your boating vacations and excursions along the coast.

So many plastic hunters around Italy. Do as they do!

So many of you have already written and sent us reports of how much plastic is in our Mediterranean. Like, for example, Gregorio Ferrari, who in Vernazzola (GE) salvaged one of those classic rubber inflatable toys that children use in their first sea baths and that by now broken and punctured was simply abandoned on the seafront. Instead, Timothy Lucie-Smith thoughtfully retrieved 3 styrofoam boxes, of those typically used by fishermen to store freshly caught fish, which he found at Punta Licosa right in the beautiful Marine Reserve.

His plastic hunt was thus rewarded on a totally positive note: an encounter with a nice group of dolphins. Important and truthful reporting of Wilhelm von Holtzen who in a message accompanying a photo of a plastic-infested riverbank states, “Plastic comes from afar and starts from above: no point in collecting it when it has arrived at its destination, if in the meantime ‘upstream’ more tons are allowed to accumulate in the environment, along rivers and canals.”

A nice haul of plastic is also the one recovered by Eriona Skipperina, who found and recovered everything at a beach in Mola di Bari: straws, lighters, glasses, plastic containers and bottles, shoes, snack bags, nets, plastic crates and Styrofoam. He reports, however, that there is still much to collect, especially pieces of glass and shattered plastic. Those who want to follow his example have plenty to clean up….

How to participate in the Medplastic Trash Hunters summer campaign.

These are just some of the reports you have sent us. Do as they do! Those who want to participate in the “Trash Hunters” campaign and turn into a plastic hunter can do so every day this summer: when you are at sea sailing along coasts and among archipelagos or while anchored at anchor in a bay or moored in a harbor or even when you are simply enjoying a day at the beach, every time you see one or more floating plastic waste pick it up, take a selfie with the “catch” and post it on Instagram in Direct Message to @giornaledellavela and @barcheamotore or post it on your profile by tagging @giornaledellavela and @barcheamotore or using the hashtag #medplastic2021.

In addition to the generic description of your “prey,” it is very important in your reports to add the exact geographic location of the find and your first and last name.

The goal of Medplastic’s “Trash Hunters 2021” campaign is to create a map of the largest concentrations of plastic in the Mediterranean Sea to try to remove them as soon as possible. Then, once we have collected all the reports, we will turn them into a kind of “virtual petition” that we will send directly to Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani. Happy hunting to all!