Between grabbers and plastic bottles - Eckernförde Cleanup Day 2022
Between Grabbers and Plastic Bottles – How 400 Young Students Make a Stand Against Marine Litter
Contribute to the long-term prevention of litter on beaches? This is possible at a young age, as 400 students from six local schools in the city of Eckernförde prove.
Equipped with grabbers, gloves, and buckets, they diligently collected all kinds of litter on September 16, 2022, to clean the entire Eckernförde beach. Although they were probably the largest group of participants, they were not the only ones: a group of divers was also present, who were able to clean the harbor basin with the help of professional equipment.
Such a large-scale and diverse cleanup operation naturally requires the support of numerous associations, such as the "Eckernförde räumt auf!" initiative, which took care of catering for the participants.
Our MBRC team also had the opportunity this year to be part of this incredibly exciting project and was therefore on site directly with the German Marine Litter Association and Eckernförde Touristik. With our international expertise, we were able to contribute numerous educational materials at our own stand, primarily to draw attention to the dangers of marine litter and to raise awareness for sustainability and recycling.
So what was the result of this action?
After three hours of diligent work, a remarkable amount of 119 kilos of litter was collected. Much more gratifying, however, is the fact that it wasn't just about merely collecting packaging, bags, glass bottles, or respiratory masks. Instead, it continued with sorting into individual subcategories. Based on this, an accurate quantity record could be made, and the litter could be entered into the Ocean Conservancy's online database – the world's largest collection of data on marine litter.
The collected data serves to educate and inform scientists, conservation groups, or even governments. Often, these data are used as a basis for political decisions. For example, they have already influenced the ban on plastic shopping bags, the ban on foam containers for food take-out, or the promotion of reusable bags. The participants therefore not only cleaned Eckernförde for a single day but also made an important contribution to the long-term prevention of litter on beaches and coastal sections with their efforts.
But apart from all the collected litter, the formation of numerous new, sometimes even cross-school friendships was ultimately the most beautiful result of the day - marine protection connects!
