The ESG has been busy on various fronts recently.

-Since the major Clean Up in September, when we learned about the volume of accumulated plastic waste washed up on the shores of Seven Sisters Cove, we arranged further clean ups and have so far removed six skips worth of harmful debris which could return to the sea. We would like to advise the public that there is a skip currently on the beach. It is full of rubbish collected by our volunteers and has been covered and secured with a tarpaulin to prevent any been blown out in stormy weather. We hope this skip will be removed soon.

Thanks again to the various services that have helped our volunteers tackle this inaccessible area- namely: GibDock, the MoD, GDP and the Gibraltar General Support Services ltd.

-Our concerns about the waste at Seven Sisters is because much of it is polystyrene used in packaging which breaks down quite rapidly into something called nurdles which mimic plankton in colour, shape and form and is easily mistaken for food by birds and marine life which are all part of the food chain. The material also attracts oil present in water adding to the toxicity of the broken down material ingested by marine life.

-Somewhere along the line we could all be eating polystyrene, what a thought! The fact is Gibraltar is surrounded by sea- we do not recycle plastic- instead, we continue to send this to a temporary dump where it then gets loaded onto trucks and off to the separation plant in Los Barrios. Yes, some of this will be recovered but a lot of this will go to landfill. While at our local dump, some of the plastic will fly onto the cliffs and surrounding seas adding to the soup of lethal waste currently entering the world’s oceans. According to several authoritative studies 75% of debris found at sea comes from land based sources.

Visit our website which is currently carrying a short video on the home page precisely on the impacts of plastic at sea. www.esg-gib.net.

Sewage Issues:

As if this wasn’t enough our seas are also expected to cope with the return of storm drain sewage from la Linea as various reports to the ESG highlight this pollution is now making itself felt at various parts of Gibraltar’s coastline. Clearly our neighbours do not have sufficient funds to deal with this issue and we shall continue to be affected until the municipality is resourced to deal with this cross border issue. We shall continue to do what we can to help resolve this issue and are currently discussing plans with beach users as well as MEP’s to see what is possible. Of course, Gibraltar needs to also get to grips with our own sewage treatment plant Govt promised to set up many years back.

CEPSA:

It’s also worth mentioning that CEPSA appears to have had an oil leak recently in the area of Puente Mayorga, a residential area highly vulnerable to any mishaps at the plant. The company denied culpability and local campaigners, Ecologistas en Accion, challenged this in the Spanish media. Thankfully, it wasn’t a large spill but nevertheless it also ended up at sea washing up in nearby beaches too.

CUTW the Movie:

We would like to end our broadcast with a few positive messages: our CUTW movie is almost ready hopefully by the end of this month and we hope it will prove to be an inspiring and informative tool to ensure the message of the CUTW weekend prevails throughout the year. Our team is busy putting in the final touches and it is looking really good!

Recycle.gi:

This morning saw the ESG paying a visit to a local green company called Recycle.gi. During a busy two hour period around 3 tonnes of paper and cardboard was loaded up on a truck for export to a designated centre in Algeciras. An impressive amount of valuable paper and cardboard waste that will be processed and re-used. It was a very positive experience for the onlooker but really hard work for the company that has coped with a lot of difficulty dealing as it does, with an international border known for its problems and delays. Border inspections also add to the workload seeing the company needing to offload if not all the haul, then part to allow full inspection by Spanish customs. Nevertheless Recycle.gi is committed to their business and the ESG was very impressed with the professionalism and efficiency in their operation. Visit Recycle.gi if you want to learn more about what this young, green company is all about.