Since the beginning of the year, around four tons of rubbish have been collected from the sand of some beaches in the region. The group “One Piece After Another”, which accounts for 17 tons of trash in five years, scheduled the next action for the May 1st holiday, in Água de Madeiros.
The northernmost beach in the municipality of Alcobaça is one of the stages of the civic movement’s initiatives, which was launched in 2019 by Ricardo Machado, 40 years old, from Marinha Grande, who started the environmental journey alone. “I’m an amateur photographer and one day I went to the beach, which was very dirty. I thought I had to do something and, that day, I filled the first bag and posted it on social media”, says the entrepreneur, who hoped to entice his friends to do the same. The project grew, until Ricardo named the mission to protect the beaches and beyond.
Since then, the “One Piece After Another” movement, which has a core group of around 40 people, has had 1,400 volunteers in the last five years, coming from municipalities in the region, namely Marinha Grande, Leiria, Fátima and Alcobaça. “These are people who identify with the beach, with nature”, considers the movement’s mentor, who operates in the coastal area from Praia do Norte, on the edge of the municipality of Nazaré, to Pedrógão, in the municipality of Leiria. “We just haven’t been to Légua and Falca yet”, acknowledges the environmental volunteer.
The 17 tons collected since 2019 are surprising, but, in reality, they could be much more. “During the pandemic, we couldn’t do much. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 there were around three tons, because I did more alone and I only organized three public actions, one each year”, describes Ricardo Machado. The numbers don’t lie. In two years, since 2022, 13.5 tons were removed, of which seven relate to last year.
Bad habits and lack of civility are causes of the enormous amount of trash that ends up on beaches. And some of them are dirtier than others. “It may have to do with sea currents and the proximity of rivers”, says the group’s face, which gives the example of Paredes da Vitória, from where four tons of rubbish have been collected since the creation of the project. These are values well above those of beaches without a river and less frequented. However, garbage is not just urban. On the contrary. Around 70 percent of the debris collected on beaches comes from boats and fishing activities.
Ricardo Machado, who carries out awareness-raising activities in schools in the region, is now looking for agreements and partnerships to obtain equipment to improve collection, such as extendable arms and gloves, and has already secured reused plastic bags.
The movement’s mentor’s list of objectives includes a more ambitious one – the acquisition of a quad bike with a trailer, in order to speed up garbage collection on the sands.
