The water is turquoise and the place heavenly.
Yet a scourge is still there embedded everywhere, tiny, hidden between each grain of sand.
Microplastic waste contaminates beaches.
Even after a year of complete cessation of single-use plastic decided in August 2021 in Cyprus, volunteers still find it scattered everywhere.
The good news all the same is the quantity of this ultra-polluting material which did not end up in the open air thanks to this ban: "We have succeeded in reducing the use of single-use plastic and the amount saved is equivalent to the weight of 23 Boeing 737 planes, proudly explains Panagiota Koutsofta, the head of the “Keep our sand and our sea plastic-free” project.
Our goal is to increasingly reduce the use of plastic and perhaps achieve a mass equivalent to the weight of thousands of planes, why not!
?
»
Read also“A saturation point”: WWF calls on the whole world to urgently tackle marine plastic pollution
If the task is bold, mentalities evolve little by little.
On June 1, 2022, a second beach on the island has just banned single-use plastic.
“At the beginning, it was hard to imagine a restaurant without single-use plastics like water bottles, etc. confesses Chris Karas, owner of a restaurant who now bans the use of plastic.
But, little by little, with the help of the NGO, and thanks to the will of our staff and managers, I think we quickly realized that it wasn't really that difficult.
But we are only at the very beginning of the process that we are trying to follow to save the environment.
»
There is an urgent need to reduce the use of plastic on earth.
According to a WWF report earlier this year, global plastic production is set to double by 2040 and threatens all ocean species.