As the Adriatic coast is drowning in debris, one young couple did their part to keep our beaches clean. An inspiring story from Silba island on April 9, 2018
We’ve been paying a lot of attention to sea pollution and beach cleanups recently. Plastic and debris, suffocating our treasured coast, a problem growing bigger and bigger with each passing year. Fortunately, there are people who refuse to wait around until someone else deals with the issue, instead rolling up their sleeves and facing the pollution problem on their own. One such example comes our way from Pokret otoka (Island movement), with a story of two people who should serve as inspiration to the rest of us.
Morena and Lovre, both some 20 years old, are a couple living on Silba island. Lovre is a native of Silba, while Morena, a former resident of Zagreb, fell in love with the island and decided to relocate.
A few days ago, the couple paid a visit to one of their favourite beaches on Silba, called Nozdre. What should have been a lovely stroll in the first days of spring turned into a shock, as the two young people came upon a beach swamped with waste. Taken aback by the unpleasant sight, they didn’t turn around and walk away – they decided to take action instead, returning the next day to clean up their favourite spot on Silba. This time around, they drove to the beach on a tractor, as the quantity of waste they had to deal with called for more than a couple of trash bags.
Here’s a transcript of the message Morena sent to Pokret otoka:
“On Monday, we decided to take a walk to Nozdra beach as it was a beautiful day, and Nozdra is my favourite bay on Silba island. I knew there would be some waste, but I wasn’t expecting to see what we came upon on Monday. There’s so much garbage there this year, my eyes filled with tears. This is the third year I’ve been going to Nozdre, and also the worst shape I’ve found it in so far. We couldn’t resist the urge to do something, even though we only went there to relax at the beach. So we took a couple of bins and fishing crates, and slowly started to fill them with garbage. We chucked it all on a heap in some bushes to prevent the waste getting spread around by wind.
The following day, as soon as Lovre was done with work, I couldn’t help but to ask him to go collect the waste we had picked up at Nozdre the day before, and to collect more waste, as much we could. So we got on a tractor and headed to Nozdre. There’s still a considerable quantity of waste there; the worst is a beach covered in algae intertwined with debris. The worst problem of all is that the plastic started to decompose. We have only cleaned up one bay at Nozdre, the other bay isn’t in such a critical state as it had been cleaned up before, but there’s a lot of waste there as well. Unfortunately, there’s only two of us for now so it’s all going a bit slow, but I don’t doubt more people will join us soon, so we could take care of this issue.
Nozdre is only a drop in the ocean, there are a lot of other beaches and bays that could use a cleanup. Let’s make our gorgeous Silba even more beautiful!”
Morena and Lovre did a commendable thing at Nozdre beach, and we should all learn from their example. As stated by Pokret otoka in their report, it’s time to stop complaining and lamenting the terrible state of affairs; instead, we should praise even the smallest of actions, as they all contribute to a common goal, keeping the Adriatic coast clean and pristine. Sometimes, it only takes two people to set a large-scale movement in motion.
Photo credit: Pokret otoka
