Joint action against the waste in our environment

Hence, we were extremely excited and happy that we were allowed to meet up in a hybrid approach for the first time since the precautionary measures to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 came into force. We met up physically in different parts of the city in small groups of up to four colleagues and stayed in touch with the other groups virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Prepared and fully equipped with garbage bags, gloves, tongs and our outstanding SKC team spirit of course, we started off the evening with a group call via our smart phones. Afterwards, we began collecting garbage in our groups in various locations, such as along the banks of the river Ihme, to avoid the waste ending up in the water, or in the more historic but densely populated district of Linden, as well as in more remote but lush vegetated areas such as Hainholz.

Regardless of what part of town we were in however, the litter was pretty much the same everywhere: plastic wrappers, cans, cigarette butts, tissue papers, the contemporary masks and some odd items, which probably don't require further description. Although some areas appeared very clean at first sight, we were surprised at how fast our garbage bags filled up, especially after we left the main path and focused on the thickets.

Viewing the consequences of the continuously rising amount of waste in our environment toxically combined with the durability of plastic waste in particular, we wanted to create awareness for environmental protection with this symbolic act. On a positive note, there are many local projects up and running all over the world which would be delighted to welcome new volunteers, such as our local organization „Hannover bleibt putzmunter".