Quito, Sep 26 (EFE).- Some 46,000 volunteers will participate this week in Ecuador’s “Action for the planet” campaign, which will take part in the country’s coastal regions, the Environment Ministry said.
The government, through its National Program for the Comprehensive Management of Solid Waste (PNGIDS), has promoted several campaigns to help clean up Ecuador’s beaches and rivers, the ministry said in a statement released on Tuesday.
One of those campaigns is part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day, which has been carried out for several years in more than 123 countries and is organized by Ocean Conservancy, the statement says.
This year’s overall campaign in Ecuador is called “Action for the planet” and is taking place on Friday in more than 300 spots (rivers, ravines, lakes, lagoons and beaches) in the country’s 24 provinces
The beach and river clean-up programs that have been organized in Ecuador since 2010 have led to the collection of more than 722,000 kilos (just under 800 tons) of trash, mostly made up of plastic, a ministry spokesman told EFE.
Environment Minister Humberto Cholango said in a video posted on social media that Ecuadorians have the duty of keeping coastal regions clean because they are part of their “national heritage,” and invited his fellow citizens to participate in the clean-up work on Friday.