On Wednesday a volunteer team of local residents, environment groups and an amazing team of tour reps from two of the largest tour operators on Gran Canaria all joined forces for a World Environment Day Litter-Pick, to help clear a kilometer long stretch of roadway. Everything they found was deposited at the main Cabildo Punto Limpio (Clean Point) on the Palmitos Park road near the old water park.
A small team were also deployed specifically to remove debris and cigarette butts from one of the most prestigious viewpoints over the Maspalomas Dunes, proving that even the best maintained areas of our tourist zone still require the commitment of all visitors and residents to try and maintain the highest possible standards for our places of outstanding natural beauty. They wanted to show that this is a shared responsibility.
With over one hundred people having attended the event, organised by #TravelWithoutPlastic in collaboration with #TUI and #ThomasCook local resort teams, in just two hours collected a TOTAL of 5,234 pieces of rubbish broken down as follows:960 Cigarette Butts
2715 Plastic Items
6 Foam
94 Metal (cans etc)
150 pieces of glass
1205 Paper pieces
3 pieces of Fishing Gear
84 Packaging items
17 Personal Hygiene Items
+Plus 5 bags of organic rubbish and some random items like a shopping trolley, a car tyre and a huge dog crate that had been discarded by the side of the road.
The beach clean mainly removed cigarette butts and small pieces of tissue and detritus left by unhelpful passers by, though in general found the beach area to be outstandingly clean, there was still a need for more work to help remove items that harm the environment from the natural reserve area, and the litter bins were packed full, so perhaps need supplementary capacity to help beach users properly dispose of their waste.All in all Maspalomas has a lot to be proud of… well done everyone you should all be proud of your contribution.
