Let’s Do it! Cyprus gets off to a good start

A hundred kilos of rubbish were pulled from the seabed at Zygi fishing shelter, and over 1,500 litres of waste were picked from the adjacent beach as part of a clean-up campaign that was launched this week.

Called ‘Let’s Do It! Cyprus 2023’, the campaign was organised by environmental NGO network Together Cyprus and the environment commissioner’s office, and will run until October 29.

The launch event saw volunteers collecting 672 litres of mixed rubbish and 1,064 litres of PMD from Zygi beach. A hundred kilos of rubbish were also collected underwater at the Zygi fishing shelter.

“Through our actions, we must convey the seriousness of the matter, and that we mean what we say,” President Nikos Christodoulides said in a speech, adding that the protection of the environment should not just be a government priority.

“To get to the point where we don’t need clean-up campaigns, we must first build a culture that will facilitate that,” he added.

In her own statements, environment commissioner Maria Panayiotou said her office’s job is not to organise campaigns or to clean up parts of the world that have been polluted, but rather to encourage change in the public’s mentality “so that we can start to reduce, reuse and recycle, so that all rubbish is processed as it should”.

“We must be the change we want to see” when it comes to environmental issues, she said, thanking everyone involved and applauding the president for adding the environment in his government’s agenda.

The clean-up of Zygi beach and fishing shelter should be a springboard for further mobilisation, fisheries department head Marina Argyrou said.

Eighty per cent of plastics found in the sea come from terrestrial sources, she pointed out, adding that marine litter threatens human health as microplastics enter the food chain.

At the same time, large plastic pieces significantly affect marine organisms, causing suffocation or even death in marine animals, including protected species such as sea turtles, she added, mentioning that the fisheries department runs seven programmes dedicated to monitoring marine litter and microplastics on beaches, on the seabed, on the surface of the water and on sea turtles.