JOINTISZA - "THE WORLD'S RIVER AND STREAMS NEED MORE OF THIS PLASTIC CUP" - UN ENVIRONMENT MENTIONS JOINTISZA AND PLASTIC CUP
10-09-2018
From food packaging in shops to straws in bars, single-use plastics are so ubiquitous in modern society that they can be hard to avoid while navigating through daily life. As a result, plastic waste is now reaching sites that were either pristine or, if contaminated by other means, untouched by plastic pollution.
One such place is Tisza River. The Danube’s largest tributary makes its way from Ukraine to Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia – collecting plastic along the way. The main source of Tisza’s plastic litter is the flood of PET bottles coming from upstream Hungary, Ukraine and Romania. At times, plastic waste reaches several metres in height in the floodplain of the river, a unique forest wilderness.
In response, around 400 volunteers took to the water this past August to race homemade boats and remove plastic debris from the river’s banks. People of all ages put on their swimming costumes and sailed boats made from recycled plastic.
“Plastic pollution is rampant along Tisza river. Our team, JoinTisza, collected 80 bags full of rubbish in a single day,” said Magnus Andresen, of UN Environment. His team won the competition by collecting the most waste.
“The Plastic Cup shows the power of sport and volunteering in raising awareness about river protection and the importance of waste management,” said UN Environment’s Filippo Montalbetti, another member of the JoinTisza team. “The Plastic Cup is unique since it combines environmental awareness, sport and local cultural values into a community-and team-building competition.”
The JoinTisza team was brought together by the EU-funded JoinTisza Project, which supports the shared management of Tisza river, and the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Team members came from eight countries – Hungary, India, Italy, Morocco, Norway, Serbia, the United Kingdom and the United States – all determined to beat plastic pollution.
Read the full article on the United Nations Environment Programme website.
|
|||||||
