Under the sun and with the sound of waves in the background, volunteers passionate about marine sciences, sea enthusiasts, and several civil society organizations responded to the call of a man in his fifties to clean the beaches of marine debris. This event has been held on the same date each year for the past eighteen years.
The campaign, initiated by him and his friends in 2004, has grown to include participation from eight Libyan cities this year, and it has expanded to several cities across the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. The primary objective of this initiative is to eliminate plastic waste, which can persist for decades without decomposing. The Mediterranean Sea is a closed environment, and, according to the campaign’s director, the sea only naturally cleanses itself once every 80 years.
Ali Al-Ruqeibi, Director of the “Sea and Sun” International Initiative, stated: “This year, Tunisia and Egypt have been the most active participants. The level of engagement fluctuates based on people’s circumstances, as this is a voluntary effort. Volunteers may be committed, but sometimes their conditions prevent them from participating.”
Several civil society organizations took part in this beach-cleaning campaign, stressing that more volunteers are needed to carry out this effort effectively.
Jamila Mohammed, a member of the Libyan Organization for Environment and Climate, remarked: “We should preserve our environment from pollution, and schools ought to participate in beach cleaning campaigns.”
Experts note that some beaches accumulate more plastic debris than others due to the movement of currents and winds. The best approach to managing this collected plastic is recycling, sending it to factories for processing. Leaving it behind can cause direct harm to marine life, which then indirectly enters the human food chain.
Dho Al-Qasim, Senior Researcher at the Marine Research Center, commented: “Ultimately, humans consume fish that contain microplastics, which are invisible to the naked eye. This has a negative impact on human health.”
The campaign concludes for the day, yet the accumulation of plastic on the shore persists, awaiting either more volunteers or heightened awareness to find a solution that mitigates the dangers plastics pose to marine life and humans.