CYPRUS: 650 kilos of rubbish collected in ‘Zero Waste Beach’ campaign

Some 650 kilos of waste was collected from the Cyprus coastline and its seabed during the three-month `Zero Waste Beach’ campaign.

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A total of four cleaning campaigns took place at the sea bottom and 17 along the Cyprus coastline from May to July.

The program is organised by AKTI Project and Research Centre and Coca-Cola / Lanitis Branches, with the support of the Coca-Cola Foundation.

This summer Coca-Cola will contribute 15% of the net proceeds from the sale of its collectible glass bottle to the cleaning campaign.

This year`s coastline clean-up involved 420 volunteers, children and adults, and the waste collected amounted to 18,000 or 650 kilos.

Around 60% of the rubbish was cigarette butts, 24% plastic, 7% paper, 3% metallic, 3% mixed, 1% hygiene and medical waste and 1% glass.

Waste recording and source separation were based on the International Ocean Conservancy Protocol.

All data is imported into the Ocean Conservancy’s data platform to serve as a basis for data comparison and future research. The coast and seabed cleaning campaign will continue in September.

This year’s effort focused on expanding the Network companies involved to 200. So far 130 companies are participating in the program.

Next Autumn a total of six seabed cleaning campaigns will be carried out.

During the May-July campaign, the volunteers cleaned reefs in the districts of Larnaca, Paphos, Limassol and Famagusta.