THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF TRASH COLLECTED BY SLOPPY TUNAS

The social work carried out by Sloppy Tunas throughout these years reaffirms that small actions can make a difference

Nowadays, due to how society has developed, every single person in the world generates some kind of negative impact on the ocean. We can try to reduce or minimize it, but it never ceases to exist. A good way to give back to the ocean all that it provides us with is to clean a natural area, be it a forest, a beach or the seabed.

As it is known, the Sloppy Tunas team are lovers of the sea and we enjoy spending our free time near the water and the marine ecosystem. For this reason, since we started down this path, we decided that a strategy had to be proposed to fight the plastic problem, beyond the circular economy project.

Among other things, we dedicate part of our time to engagement tasks, we collaborate with NGOs and entities that protect the sea and its fauna, we also report when necessary, always from a constructive perspective.

Since our beginnings, we have been promoting sustainability and awareness from different areas: speaking about plastic, sustainable entrepreneurship, the circular economy, cleaning of natural areas ... In this article we want to highlight the benefits of cleaning natural areas, also known as Clean Ups.

There is no better introduction to the topic of plastic pollution than participating in a Clean up of a natural area. This allows us to see the real damage that we generate as a society, reinforces our conscience making us feel involved and shows us that small joint actions have an impact.

Making a retrospective assessment of the Clean ups organised by Sloppy Tunas, we can see figures that on one hand support the need to carry out such actions but on the other hand encourage us to be optimistic seeing the good reception and results obtained.

All this has been possible thanks to the collaboration of many entities that, throughout the territory, have made this successful task possible.

Cleaning actions in the natural environment, be it beach, mountain, river or seabed are part of our business activism. Having organized more than twenty of these actions, without losing our amazement we can proudly affirm that we have mobilized more than 1000 volunteers, removing an amount close to 20 tons of waste in natural areas, having collaborated with more than 50 associations and NGOs, among which we can highlight the remarkable work of PROARTSO, Pure Clean Earth, Grup de Natura Sterna or campaigns such as Let's Clean Up Europe. Also having the support of the local administrations that have facilitated these tasks to the volunteers.

All this has a background that generates a social impact that goes far beyond to what’s related to nature; bridges are built, the community and the social network are strengthened with sensitivity to the environment, actions thus allow building bridges between local entities, administrations and people committed to the planet.

Cleanings such as in Sant Feliu de Guíxols 2018 should be noted, where about 5 tons were removed by more than 50 volunteers and different entities in 2 hours of altruistic work. Objects such as: sofas, beds, toilets, car wheels... were some of the most remarkable. But we can also see the river Ridaura filled with supermarket carts and other objects, a priori, unlikely to be found at a site like this. We give prominence to the Forest Defense Association, the Grup Natura Sterna and Civil Protection for facilitating key infrastructures such as cars with trailers, specific tools or even the removal of harmful materials such as uralite.

Of the many studies that there are referring to the problem of pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, we can highlight that 95% of it is plastic according to sources such as National Geographic, which should raise the alarm. Referring Spain, it’s a failure. Our territory throws 126 tons of plastics per day, ranking as the second country that dumps the most plastics into the Mediterranean, only behind Turkey, according to WWF.

It is important to remember that the generalisation of the use of plastic dates back just 70 years. Plastic has crept into our daily lives to the point of us not being able to imagine life without it. With an unquantifiable scope, the efforts of the experts are focused on curbing the waste of plastic, while raising awareness about the need to protect the Mediterranean.

Our initiative was born focusing on this goal: transforming marine litter into the raw material for clothing, placing the circular economy as a lever to change this situation. “Every day, more than 2,000 fishermen from the Spanish Mediterranean ports deposit the garbage collected in their nets in containers. The plastic in the garbage becomes a filament: the thread of the sea”, says the documentary Let's save our Mediterranean.

We have the knowledge and the technology to save the Mediterranean. “With our clothes, we want to walk the talk. Seeing so much plastic in the oceans near where we live, we knew we had to do something. So we are turning something negative into something meaningful: harmful ocean plastics become high-quality fashion shorts to enjoy for years to come, ”says co-founder Marc Villalongue.