00:00 Ten million tons of plastic waste end up in our oceans every year.
00:16 But more and more people across Europe, like here in Hungary, take matters into their own
00:22 hands to stop the flow of plastic litter well before it reaches the sea.
00:34 The Bodrog River, a beautiful natural site in northeastern Hungary, is marred by discarded
00:39 plastic bottles carpeting its banks.
00:45 You may ask where does it come from?
00:48 If you have a look, for example, at this bottle, you can see the answer, because it's from
00:54 Ukraine, Transcarpathia.
00:56 Most of the waste is from there.
00:58 And the reason is that basically in Transcarpathia there is no waste management.
01:01 They just dump the waste into the floodplain, and when the floods come, it picks it up and
01:07 spreads it in Hungary.
01:10 To address the problem, Miklos Gyalaikorpos and other activists created the Plastic Cup,
01:16 an annual showdown of competing teams cleaning up the banks of Hungarian rivers.
01:22 This year, over 150 enthusiasts hit the Bodrog for four days, kayaking and rafting, scooping
01:29 up plastic as they go.
01:33 And there's a lot to scoop.
01:35 About 90 tons of plastic waste cover a 50-kilometer stretch of this river bank alone.
01:40 If not removed, the litter is headed for the Danube, then the Black Sea, and eventually
01:45 the oceans.
01:52 In addition to cleaning up, this group of youngsters is also helping with a scientific
01:57 study on plastic pollution.
02:00 Simone Börk coordinates the project.
02:06 Children and young adults go to the river, and they collect trash in a scientific way.
02:11 We collect the data, we categorize it, and then it's uploaded to an online platform,
02:17 so scientists can use it for their research.
02:19 Backed by the EU, Plastic Pirates Go Europe is a citizen science initiative that gathers
02:25 young volunteers across a dozen countries.
02:29 Following a strict methodology, they clean a designated 200-square-meter area and then
02:34 document every piece of litter they find.
02:37 It makes me sad that there are people in the world who throw away so much litter just like
02:42 that.
02:43 But it's great that there are people willing to clean up after others.
02:47 It's not just ugly, it's so dangerous for the animals because they think it's eatable
02:55 stuff, it's food.
02:57 And when they eat it, they can die.
02:59 Or if a fish eats plastic, and a human eats fish, it's repeating.
03:07 Scientists still lack data on the plastic pollution trends in Europe, and such samplings
03:12 help fill the gaps.
03:15 Plastic pirates are quickly gaining momentum across the region.
03:20 We've got Portugal, Spain, we've got Italy, we've got Belgium, Germany, Hungary of course,
03:29 where we're at right now, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, oh and Georgia, also just joined.
03:35 The focus on riverbanks is intentional.
03:39 Plastic pirates rally under the slogan "The Ocean Starts Here."
03:49 Indeed 80% of ocean plastic pollution comes from rivers and canals carrying urban litter
03:55 into the seas.
03:57 Even Brussels, often called the capital of Europe, hasn't fully addressed this problem
04:01 yet.
04:03 This canal is far from pristine.
04:05 Local group Canal It Up organises community clean-ups to get people aware and involved.
04:12 On International Coastal Clean-up Day, the activists teamed up with European officials,
04:17 including the EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginius Sinkevicius.
04:23 The EU has big goals - cut ocean plastic pollution and household waste in half by 2030.
04:30 But progress is slow.
04:32 While plastic litter on most coastlines does seem to be declining, the amount of packaging
04:37 in municipal waste has actually gone up by 19% in the last decade.
04:44 Today our catch of the day, if I can call it, you know, you see bottles that could be
04:49 avoided if you use, you know, reusable bottle.
04:53 We caught quite a few coffee cups.
04:56 Again, you can definitely reuse it.
04:58 So reuse is important.
05:01 Getting rid of single-use plastics I think is key.
05:04 And I think, you know, many of things in this canal could be avoided if we would, for example,
05:10 would have a simple deposit system.
05:12 A deposit return system where empty packaging can be bought back to a collection point for
05:17 a refund is showing promise in cutting down wastes.
05:21 So the activists are pushing for Belgian stores and shoppers to fully embrace it despite the
05:27 extra costs.
05:28 We are getting surrounded by countries who have an efficient deposit system.
05:33 The Netherlands just introduced it last year.
05:36 There's now this week Poland introduced the deposit system.
05:39 15 and 11% of trash we fish out of the canal are cans and plastic bottles.
05:45 If we put a deposit, a physical deposit system in place for these two packagings, we can
05:50 get them out of nature overnight.
05:57 Plastic waste travels down rivers and oceans, crossing borders.
06:02 So solving this issue needs international teamwork.
06:06 The Hungarian crew behind the plastic cup have joined forces with partners in Western
06:10 Ukraine to prevent the river pollution problem at its source.
06:15 And their annual clean-up campaigns are drawing in volunteers from different countries.
06:21 Of course we should all worry about the situation in Hungary the same way we should worry about
06:24 the situation in Spain, in Germany.
06:26 And we should all try to help each other as much as we can because the problem is global.
06:31 Over four days the competitors scooped up 11 tons of trash.
06:35 That's over 2,500 bags of waste that won't be polluting our oceans.
06:40 Vilja Molnair has been participating since she was nine.
06:45 I think it's improving.
06:47 It's getting more attention and that helps a lot.
06:51 We have more children now than ever helping us out.
06:55 I'm hoping for clean rivers and that people can enjoy this beautiful nature on its own
07:02 without the plastic.
07:04 All the gathered litter gets sorted and the organisers say about two-thirds of it will
07:09 be recycled.
07:10 It's really just the tip of the iceberg and we know that we cannot remove everything from
07:20 the plastic.
07:21 I think the real solution is using less, so prevent the formation of waste and if you
07:27 really need to consume something then put it in the right place in the right bin.
07:33 Prevent, reduce, reuse, recycle.
07:36 The steps to turning the plastic tide are evident and activists in many countries are
07:42 setting an inspiring example to follow.
07:45 Globally the production of plastics is soaring while the environmental progress is barely
07:50 inching forward.
07:52 Truly cleaning up our rivers, seas and oceans is going to need a worldwide push.
07:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]
