<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/plastic-cup-competitions-cleaning-up-rivers-hungary/>
"Hundreds of muddy plastic bottles, chunks of Styrofoam, car tires and even the
odd refrigerator are piled high on a raft afloat on the river Tisza, about 90
miles northeast of Budapest, Hungary. Every now and then, a canoe pulls up to
the raft, which is jokingly referred to as “the mothership.” The canoe unloads
large yellow sacks full of plastic waste collected from the water, the
occupants exchange laughs and have a bite to eat from the mothership’s
surprisingly well-stocked pantry, and then they set off again to hunt for more
plastic trash.
Every sack is recorded and tied up as the pile grows. This is important,
because each canoe represents one of 15 teams, gathered on the Tisza to compete
in the Plastic Cup, or
PET Kupa. And the team with the biggest haul of trash
wins.
Since its start in 2013, the Plastic Cup has inspired teams to build boats and
rafts using floats made with hundreds of plastic bottles that they have fished
out of the water. Afloat on these boats, teams embark on a mad treasure hunt,
collecting waste wherever they find it.
Believe it or not, the germ of the idea of a plastic collecting contest grew
out of a documentary film. In 2008, while making a film on sand martins nesting
on the banks of the Tisza, director Attila Dávid Molnár witnessed a flood of
plastic bottles in the river, so many that he and his crew could barely see the
water. “I knew we had to do something special about it,” he says. “This was not
something that called for individual action or a warning video, it rather
called for a movement.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
