When you get closer to the source

A few kilometers east of Fetovaia, our research base, lies the small picturesque town of Secchetto. At the heart of Secchetto there’s a small stream that runs down through the middle of the town and straight to the beach. We decided to screen that small rill for plastic. First, we determined the approximate size and found the river bed’s area we sampled to measure almost 370 m2. While measuring, we immediately noticed that plastic wasn’t the only thing we would encounter: our group was eaten alive by mosquitos. No surprise really, considering it’s a fresh water stream with a swamp-like riparian. Quite a challenge and it forced us to collect in shifts. We managed and collected the largest sum of plastic waste yet. We will determine the details tomorrow once everything has dried up, but it was immediately apparent that what we find at the beaches is usually smaller, likely because it is already broken up by the waves. The plastic waste we found along the river included intact larger tanks, >30 pegs (most intact), cups from various breweries, a tablet blister, a dustpan, etc.. It was a cross section of what we are so familiar with and what, once its broken, empty, or no longer of any use, through away. Sad to see how much ends up where it shouldn’t.