Strange noise. The crack of crushing plastic bottles under your feet. In the woods by the beach. Autumn has laid a golden carpet. You bend down. You shake off the noise and… find you’re walking on a landfill. A few meters from the beautiful beach next to the Chernomorets hut. A ton and a half of waste in just 2-3 hours. And there is a lot more… This is the summary of the beach cleaning campaign on the eve of the International Black Sea Day – October 31. The volunteers rolled up their sleeves and grabbed garbage bags. A full bottle of “Varna” red label beer. The market had forgotten it for a decade. But nature preserves it for posterity. Because the glass, thrown in the forest or in the landfill, remains forever. Plastic outlasts it. In quantity. Over 90% of the one and a half tons of waste collected are plastic bottles, cups, bags, stirrers, utensils, sunscreen wrappers, belts, toys and even tennis rackets. And while plastic bags are in a state of semi-decay, rubber, tin remains and metal canisters rival glass in sustainability. A girl poses with her newly unearthed find – a well-preserved colourful child’s flip-flop. The enthusiasm of a young man cleaning two metres away is no less. He holds a whole, perfectly healthy flipper in his hands.
Nearly 300 volunteers – from 3-year-old children, to teenagers from Varna high schools, to barely-man-walking men of advanced age but with fighting spirit, cleaned the few remaining wild beaches north of Varna – “Pasha Dere”, “Chernomorets”, “Veteran”, Rybarski.