AyA
A total of 2,400 kilograms of waste will no longer pollute the Pacific Ocean and Costa Rican beaches. A total of 450 volunteers extracted that amount of waste from Guacalillo beach last Saturday.
The initiative is part of the Costa Rica Green and Clean Program and the efforts of the Ocean Conservancy group, which promotes the World Day of Clean Coasts and Rivers. The volunteers and leaders of the organization Terra Nostra collected and classified about 2,400 kg of waste.
Seventy percent of this amount was garbage that was later taken to the landfill by the Municipality of Garabito. The remaining 30% was composed of recoverable waste, transported by Planet Mission to the Garabito Collection Center.
The process took place along almost 3 kilometers of the beach Guacalillo. Several institutions such as the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Ministry of Culture and Youth participated in the initiative, as well as the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the Red Cross and private companies.
Members of the Gulf Network also collaborated. This organization unites communities from the interior of the Gulf of Nicoya.
The collection shows once again the great amount of trash dragged by rivers such as Virilla River, from the Greater Metropolitan Area, towards Tárcoles River, that flows into the Central Pacific.
The pollution affects several beaches, especially Guacalillo and Playa Azul, and the islands of the Gulf of Nicoya.
Poor waste management not only impacts coastal marine biodiversity, landscape and water bodies, but also human health and tourism. Law 8839 require maintaining an adequate waste management, but there is a great breach.
There are other volunteer groups organizing workshops in other sectors of the country:
-Amigos del Rio Torres organizes the cleaning day in Parque México sector on September 30th, next to the Children’s Museum and in the community of Cipreses, in Bario Mexico.
-The company Alimentos Pro Salud will clean the beach of the central canton of Puntarenas on October 20th.
-The Yisky Association will clean the beach of the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge, in the South Caribbean.