Dozens of children took part in a cleanup initiative which successfully removed around 250 kilos of rubbish from the heart of the Ria Formosa estuary.
The event was held at Quinta de Marim in Olhão on International Coastal Cleanup Day (Saturday, September 21).
The initiative involved members of the RIAS wildlife rehabilitation centre in Olhão and several children from the Guias de Portimão, Guias de Olhão and Guias de Loulé girls’ groups.
Plastic bottles, polystyrene, ropes, fishing nets, plastic boxes, pieces of wood and even blinds, a Father Christmas cap, a bicycle and tyres were removed from the estuary during the cleanup.
The event was also backed by the Blue Ocean Foundation which provided the bags and cleanup materials so that participants could “spend part of their day making Ria Formosa a cleaner area”.
Organisers pointed out that this was just one of 70 similar initiatives that were carried out throughout Portugal on the day, which started being celebrated over 30 years ago when “communities rallied together with the common goal of collecting and documenting the rubbish littering their coastline”.
