Approximately 10 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year — often originating on land and carried into the sea by rivers. But increasingly, people across Europe and around the world are taking matters into their own hands to stop the flow of plastic litter well before it reaches the sea.
On International Clean-Up Day, September 16, volunteers pick up trash from beaches and riverbanks, helping to remind everyone to use less plastic and to always try to reuse or recycle what we can.
In this episode, 'Ocean' joins the large-scale "Plastic Cup" competition in Hungary: several teams of volunteers clean the banks of the Bodrog River from plastic waste carried through several national borders into the Danube and all the way to the Black Sea. As part of the multi-day event, we meet a local group from the EU-supported "Plastic Pirates-Go Europe!" citizen science campaign that organises kids and teenagers to help conduct research on plastic pollution, sampling sites across Europe following a shared methodology.
In addition, on International Clean-Up Day, the filming crew follows a clean-up event in the Belgian capital, meeting volunteers from local NGOs and EU officials who help remove plastic litter from the Brussels Canal for the #EUBeachCleanup.
OCEAN is a Euronews magazine in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE). It features monthly 8-minute videos, where we discover fascinating projects and developments related to the ocean and coastal communities.
Broadcast since 2019, OCEAN features episodes on marine protected areas, small-scale fisheries, ocean energy, aquaculture, IUU fishing, sustainable fisheries and much more. Missed one? Check them out on the Euronews website! You will also find some nice extras about these topics.
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Details
- Publication date
- 4 October 2023
- Author
- Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries