An initiative that began in May 2018 in the surroundings of 'Faro Pechiguera', with a dozen volunteers, has been multiplying its available personnel and the continuous cleaning actions of beaches and seabed in Yaiza. This 2023, they are already celebrating more than six years of freeing the southern coast of Lanzarote from garbage and raising awareness among the resident and tourist population about the care of the natural environment and the threat posed by uncontrolled disposal of plastics, wood, cans, bottles, papers, plastics, organic matter and other waste.
Since the companies 'Pura Vida Diving' and 'Kayak Lanzarote' proposed to the town hall to embark together on this mission, not only have these three entities maintained their organizational and logistical commitment, but they have been adding groups, associations and governmental organizations to whom the southern Administration, on behalf of all, publicly thanks for their "pact of word and action", although without a doubt the great architects of the execution are the volunteers who have spared no effort in sea and land to meet the objective.
The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, expresses his admiration to the volunteers saying that "their enthusiasm and work has been impressive, so from the Council we will not tire of recognizing the selfless dedication of all, those who participate now and those who have been in these six years of journey".
For her part, the Councilor for the Environment of Yaiza, Águeda Cedrés, notes in this same sense that "land personnel and divers have freed beaches and seabed from kilos and kilos of garbage that do very serious damage to the landscape and ecosystem. This last weekend we were with thirty volunteers in El Golfo and the amount of cigarette butts scattered all over the coast was more than noticeable." The actions are accompanied by recreational and educational days and this week, for example, there was a yoga class by the instructor Alba Balada before the start of the garbage collection.
The voluntary coastal cleaning program has complementary outreach campaigns such as the warning of the damage caused to the environment by seemingly harmless actions such as accumulating stones to make 'sculptures' or using them to form names and figures as happens especially on the Las Coloradas beach. In these six years of work, the volunteers have combed much of the coast of Yaiza in search of garbage.