Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — “In two hours, we collected 5.98 kilograms of cigarette butts, which was a total of 19,931 cigarette butts,” said an environmentalist who was part of a volunteer beach cleaning team this weekend in Playa del Carmen.
More than 30 volunteers took to three centrally located beaches in Playa del Carmen Sunday to rid the most-used beaches of the deposited butts. Karla Munguia Colmenero, who headed the volunteer effort, said that the 19,900 butts were collected in less than two hours.
“We received many volunteers. We did cleaning at three points which included the beach of Fifth Avenue and 10th Avenue. I thought we were going to collect a maximum of 7 ,000 butts but we exceeded that number, ” she wrote in her social networks.
She explained that the butts are extremely contaminating to water, sea water and the fresh water table, noting that 159,450 liters of water was spared from cigarette butt contamination. She added that the butts will be sent to a special recycle center in Mexico City, Eco Filter México, where they will turned into pots.
