Revisiting Beaches after Clean-up in Greece

In September 2018, as part of the Break Free From Plastic global brand audit conducted in 42 countries on six continents, Greenpeace Greece cleaned up the beach of Charakas, in Evia, Greece. The volunteers collected data for 3,000 pieces of plastic and exposed the companies whose plastic products had ended up where they shouldn’t be. In April 2019, we revisited the beach to record its condition and plastic has already returned in large quantities. Hard and heavy plastic was scattered along the edge of the water, and immeasurable quantities of lighter weight plastics like plastic cups, bottles, and takeaway food containers were stuck between the plants at the backdrop of the beach. Plastic pollution has an obvious source: the companies that continue to release this tsunami of plastic in the market. We need companies to change the way the deliver their products to us; we need to move away from the throwaway culture and embrace systems of refill and reuse.