Last Saturday, we cleaned up the Ruhr meadows in Alstaden and collected large quantities of waste. We formed teams of two, each consisting of individuals from a single household, ensuring the campaign complied with COVID-19 regulations. Over the course of the day, 16 young people gathered almost 30 bags of waste and several car tyres from the environment. "It is regrettable that our campaign is even necessary, and that some people apparently still do not understand that waste should not be disposed of in nature. We were particularly pleased with the encouragement from walkers during the event," said local organiser Max Baum of ElasmOcean. "Cigarette butts poison the water and kill fish and microorganisms. It is alarming that we found hundreds carelessly left behind in the riparian zone."
We naturally hope that such an initiative will not be necessary again anytime soon, but we remain prepared to clean up again if required.
