GENEVA, Aug 4 (AA/APP): More than 50 volunteers rolled up their sleeves on an afternoon in Geneva to tackle one of today’s most pressing environmental threats: plastic pollution.
Armed with gloves, reusable bags and a shared sense of purpose, participants gathered at Baby Plage, a small sand beach, for a lakeside cleanup organized by the Green Earth Action Foundation.
The citizen-led initiative aimed to raise awareness, collect waste and empower the local community to take concrete action in the face of growing environmental risks.
According to the foundation, nearly 100 tons of plastic waste flow into Lake Geneva every year, much of it invisible to the naked eye but harmful to aquatic biodiversity, water quality and even human health.
“Plastic is a disaster. It’s a disaster for our ecosystems and for us, basically,” Baptistelle Paldino, the head of the foundation’s Geneva office and projects, told Anadolu in an interview. “But it’s a real disaster at the moment because of the microplastics that it delivers everywhere.”
The event Wednesday focused not only on cleaning up the shoreline of Lake Geneva but also on promoting behavioral change. Awareness-raising activities were held on-site to inform participants about the effects of plastic on aquatic ecosystems and the importance of waste sorting and reduction at the source.
“This is also why we not only wanted to clean this beach, but we also wanted to include this very technical raising awareness part,” said Paldino.
She urged people to be mindful of their waste when visiting the lake, encouraging them to take their plastic bottles, cups and other items home, sort them properly, and dispose of them responsibly.