Researchers from the University participated this weekend in a garbage collection day on Soutoxuste beach, in the municipality of Redondela, an activity carried out as part of the 1 m2 por las Playas y los Mares 2017 campaign of the Libera Project, in collaboration with the Redondela municipality itself and in which the professor from the Faculty of Biology, Maruxa Álvarez, participated as local coordinator.
“Around one hundred kilos of garbage were collected and will be used to carry out an analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, of the type of waste abandoned on the beaches,” explained the teacher, adding that the information obtained will be integrated into the Mapama database (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment) for subsequent analysis and obtaining scientific data that can be used to find out the environmental impact generated by waste abandoned on the beaches.
“This beach was chosen because it is not urban and, therefore, does not have a cleaning service, which was one of the requirements to be able to include the data on the platform,” added Álvarez, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology, who also wanted to emphasize that with this activity, designed for a family audience, “it is about contributing our grain of sand to the care of the environment.”
This campaign, launched on September 29, was carried out in 47 coastal points in 21 provinces, including two river beaches in the interior and had the participation of more than a thousand volunteers. Among other points, collections were carried out in Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga), Punta del Hidalgo (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Platja Llarga (Tarragona), Arena beach (Bizkaia), Albir beach (Alicante), Matalascañas (Huelva) or Levante beach (Barcelona).
