Cozumel, Q.R. — To make young people aware of proper waste management, the Cozumel Parks and Museums Foundation (FPMC) carried out a beach cleanup at the Punta Sur Ecotourism Park.
The area was cleaned with the participation of students from the Colegio Cumbres secondary school. The beach clean is part of a social participation in environmental conservation activity in which the FPMC invites schools, companies, organized groups and citizens in general to join as volunteers.
The FPMC has maintained a permanent beach cleaning program in the Laguna Colombia State Ecological Park for more than 30 years, and on this occasion, young first year high school students from Cumbres College participated.
Student cleaned the 5 de Junio beach and separated the waste, which totaled 129 kilos that was transferred to the sanitary landfill to give them an adequate final destination.
Rafael Chacón Díaz, Director of Conservation and Environmental Education said that the waste collected arrives on the Cozumel beach by marine currents that come from other countries or from boats that sail through the area.
He said that a majority of the material collected consisted of microplastics, lids, glass containers, ropes and various plastic items of high-density polyethylene.
“No matter how far we are from the sea, glass or a plastic bag that is not disposed of properly can be blown by the wind or storms into a watercourse and that is how the garbage finds its way into the sea,” he explained.
