Plastic Free Onlus removes 12 tonnes of waste across Italy for World Ocean Day

On World Ocean Day (June 8), the Italian volunteer group Plastic Free Onlus organized almost 120 clean‑up events in cities, beaches, parks, squares, green areas and along waterways nationwide. Nearly 2,000 volunteers took part and collected about 12 000 kilograms of litter, preventing it from reaching sewers, rivers and the sea.

The campaign focused heavily on cigarette‑butt pollution. Volunteers gathered several hundred kilograms of butts; 150 kg of filters correspond to roughly 500 000 discarded cigarettes. The filters are made of cellulose acetate, a synthetic plastic that can take more than a decade to break down and fragments into micro‑ and nanoplastics that threaten marine life. Luca De Gaetano, founder and president of Plastic Free Onlus, said, “The planet is not a public ashtray,” urging cultural change, better waste infrastructure and education to curb this pervasive source of plastic waste.