"Last year - remembers Beatrice Luzzi, artistic director of the Costa Smeralda Award dedicated to the sea - 450 kilos of waste were collected". A figure that speaks of commitment but also of serious compromise. The commitment is that of the children who participated in the first edition of "Adopt a beach", the multidisciplinary scientific-environmental education project, developed through indoor and outdoor training days. The serious compromise is there for all to see: Europe, the world's second largest plastic producer, spills up to 500,000 tons of macroplastics and up to 130,000 tons of microplastics into the sea every year. In this massacre, the Mediterranean Sea ranks sixth in the world ranking of presence and accumulation of waste.
With the technical-scientific supervision of the MEDSEA Foundation, the logistical support of the Velapuliamo association and the support of Geasar and the La Maddalena Park Authority, the Costa Smeralda Consortium has therefore decided to renew the appointment with "Adopt a beach" as part of the calendar of events of the Costa Smeralda Award: on Thursday, March 28, 2019, schoolchildren once again cleaned the beaches along the coast. The usual criticism, not to be shared, of clean up initiatives is linked to the low incidence of the measure compared to the enormity of the problem. MEDSEA is convinced that beach cleaning operations by students, volunteers and citizens are an important moment of awareness. For this reason, in order to raise awareness of the territory and the communities that live there to a greater commitment to protect the sea and its coasts, was held the second day of collective mobilization. And it was really mobilized: 125 students from six classes of the secondary schools of Arzachena and Abbiadori participated in the event. In particular, the classes: 3rdA, 3rdB, 3rdC and 3rdD of the "Salvatore Ruzittu" Arzachena primary school and 3rdA and 3rdB of the Abbiadori primary school, school year 2018/2019.
Under the supervision of MEDSEA teachers and representatives and of the various member associations, each class, which has been awarded a 'Certificate of Adoption', has taken on the task of cleaning a beach and making it responsible in the future. Three beaches were involved: Li Itriceddi, Liscia Ruja and Cala Petra Ruja. And, in the paradise in Costa, cleaned by the students, there were critical points: "While we were cleaning the beach - says Maria Pala, environmental expert of the MEDSEA Foundation - the representative of the Municipality of Arzachena received a phone call warning him of the beach, in the nearby Cala Romantica in Porto Cervo, of a sperm whale. In the following days we read in detail about the kilos of plastic, mostly disposable, contained in his stomach. This is a further point of reflection on the gravity of the phenomenon and on the interaction between marine animals and waste present in the sea.
In addition, thanks to the artistic collaboration of Giorgia Concato, the day was enriched by an artistic project entitled 'Message in a bottle'. Each student recycled a bottle of water, named it and filled it with
some fragments of waste collected on the beach and with his own message to the sea. The creative work, which results from the composition of plastic bottles containing the messages of the children of each class, will be installed in the Sala Smeralda during the award ceremony and then returned to the individual classes in memory of the day and the 'promises' to the sea.