On 19 September 2021 Clean Coast Sardinia, together with a local voluntary association OIKOS, organised a beach clean-up for the ICC 2021 season. It’s the fourth ICC edition for us. When we first participated in 2018, we were a newly-formed association and we managed to attract rather small group of volunteers. Since then we have organised tens of events and some of our clean-ups gathered more than 200 people!

This time 62 volunteers, including 19 children and teens, cleaned Poetto beach in Quartu Sant’Elena for the ICC event. We filled 30 bags with all types of waste – mainly plastic. The oldest volunteer was over 80, the youngest no more than three years old. We were joined by students from Primo Levi secondary school, led by their Science teacher Stefania. Later, we were happy to learn that they formed a local group: CleanQ and they now organise voluntary clean-ups around the town.

Some of the volunteers moved from the beach to the nearby lagoon to clean its banks. The low water level after a very dry summer unveiled another ecological disaster: hundreds, if not thousands, pieces of plastic shotgun cartridges. Apparently, before this area of the lagoon became part of the Molentargius-Saline park, there was a skeet shooting site. We have informed the park authorities about the situation and we await their intervention.

Most unusual waste found: a fridge, a video game steering wheel, a kitchen oven, a TV set, two car tyres, a plywood door, a suitcase and 2 road signs. The total amount of waste collected: 510 kg!