Next Sunday, June 25, volunteers from the BIOagradables association will go to GandÃa beach to do a joint waste collection. It will be the eleventh cleaning held this year by this entity born in Valencia that combs the coasts to collect its remains and waste. This year they have already held a dozen clean-ups, including those carried out by schools and those that have been open to the public, in areas such as Pinedo, Meliana, Las Arenas and La Patacona. In total they already add up to 788.66 kg of waste.
It is difficult to establish a ranking, but the first beach is the one where more waste is normally found. This is explained by Mar Albarañez, president of this non-profit association that tells how they have come to add up to three tons in the same day in Pinedo, “and we imagine that it also has a lot to do with the jetty and the proximity of the Port”.
In fact, in the classification established for waste, the ropes, ropes and handles from fishing activity are numerous, up to 600 units have been collected. Nothing comparable to the number of accumulated cigarette butts: 6,651 this year… And it’s not bathing season yet.
Added to this list are 5,000 pieces of plastic, 350 bait boxes and 985 bottle caps. In total, they have collected 788.66 kg of waste, a figure that is not (yet) even a third of what was accumulated in 2022, when they collected 2,964.79 kg of waste.
All kinds of people participate in its meetings, but its president highlights the involvement of foreign people, from tourists to students who spend months in Valencia, “very convinced of the importance of caring for the environment,” adds Albarañez. A total of 699 people have participated this year in one of its cleanups.
Young International Baccalaureate students are also seen in their calls, since youth involvement in their activities is common. It is in the very essence of BIOagradables, which arose when five friends who were studying outside of Valencia returned one day to their usual beach, La Devesa-El Saler, to play volleyball and have a few beers. That was 2012. Astonished by the dirt they found, they cleaned it thoroughly and the next thing was to make a ‘call up’ for other friends to help them with the task.
They give talks in educational centers based on the amount of waste that is collected in their beach cleaning activities that they announce on social networks, for which they have ‘allies’ who facilitate the dissemination of their campaigns and also their financing, such as the case of the Embassy of the United States in Valencia, one of its first partners together with the local government of the city. It is in fact the American Space Valencia, the result of a collaboration between the North American Embassy and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, which convenes the next scheduled cleaning in GandÃa.
