Podcast | Pure Clean Earth

Plastic pollution is a scourge on Barcelona’s beaches. Taking a stroll along the beach is now less than idyllic, and is more a case of dodging empty cans, cigarette butts and worse. And, once this rubbish is blown into the water itself, the effect on the marine life there can be truly devastating.

While the local ajuntament has put measures in place to address the problem, the scale of the issue is so large that one look at the beach shows that what has been done is not nearly enough. To tackle the issue head on, volunteers with a newly-formed NGO called Pure Clean Earth head down to Barceloneta every weekend to clean up as much of the beach as they can, while also giving visibility to the issue and showing what ordinary people can do to help stop it.

It’s an organization that Kurt Kruperman, a regular Barcelona Metropolitan contributor, has been writing about recently, check out his article on Pure Clean Earth here. We spoke to Kurt to get some insight into the issue, before heading down to the Barcelona beach with Pure Clean Earth and members of the “Trash Tribe” to see the work they do.

You can find out more about Pure Clean Earth at: purecleanearth.org, join the Meetup group and follow its activities on Twitter: @purecleanearth, Facebook: @purecleanearth and Instagram: @purecleanearth. 

The music on this episode is “Inspire,” “Artifact” and “Lightless Dawn” by Kevin MacLeod from https://filmmusic.io  License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Harry Stott is a regular contributor to the Barcelona Metropolitan covering Brexit, local political and social issues as well as the music scene. He recently received a B.A. in music from the University of Leeds, and now writes and produces radio content for a number of organizations in Barcelona and beyond.