On Saturday 22nd October, we travelled south of Venice to carry out a clean-up and monitoring session of the marine litter in Chioggia’s Area 71 beach, with a team of volunteers from CAREL. 78 employees took part, collecting a total of around 140kg of waste from along the coastline – 64kg recyclable and 74kg non-recyclable.
Who is CAREL?
Based in Padua, CAREL is one of the leading companies worldwide in control solutions for refrigeration, air conditioning and heating, as well as systems for humidification and evaporative cooling. Their products are all designed with sustainability in mind, saving energy and reducing environmental impact.
CAREL is committed to sustainability, from their design processes to their manufacturing chain; their company sustainability policy combines environmental needs with its values and responsibilities, always fully complying with national and international regulations.
Clean-up and Monitoring of Marine Litter in Chioggia
We began our clean-up with a presentation from Venice Lagoon Plastic Free’s Directors, Davide Poletto and Gherardo Toso, who explained to the group from CAREL our association’s work and mission, as well as outlining the logistics for the day.
During our clean-up of Area 71 beach, the 78 volunteers from CAREL split into smaller groups and spread out along the length of the coastline, collecting any macro-litter into recyclable and non-recyclable bags. In total, the team collected 140kg of litter throughout the course of the day.
As well as the beach clean-up, we carried out a monitoring session of the marine litter within a 100m stretch of beach, aided by a small group from CAREL. Using the dedicated app developed as part of the MAELSTROM H2020 project, we identified and sorted the litter collected within this area. The most-recorded types of waste were: unidentifiable plastic fragments between 2.5cm and 50cm, cigarette butts, polystyrene pieces, cocktail straws, and bottle caps.
The collected litter was then taken to the Gees Recycling centre in Aviano, where it will be treated and used to generate new material which contributes to the circular economy of plastics.
Carlotta Rossi Luciani, CAREL’s Executive Director in charge of ESG, commented: “We are proud to have participated in the clean-up activity, the first in a series of initiatives promoted as part of our ‘Driven by the Future’ Sustainability Plan. The aim is to contribute to the defence of the environment, starting from the awareness that every small gesture can make a difference.”
We’d like to thank the team from CAREL for their invaluable hard work and dedication during our clean-up and monitoring of the marine litter in Chioggia.
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