No cigarette butts and rubbish in the fish’s mouth!
Most of the rubbish in water bodies comes from cities. It is transported there either directly by humans or, for example, through a storm water system. The City of Espoo is involved in the Mahanpuruja muovista (Stomach ache from plastic) communication campaign, in which street drains are decorated with impressive colourful stickers.
Launched for the third time, the Mahanpuruja muovista campaign is organised by the Keep the Archipelago Tidy association. In the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, its implementation is the responsibility of HSY in cooperation with the Baltic Sea Challenge and the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.
“With the Mahanpuruja muovista campaign, we want to highlight the fact that rubbish does not disappear in nature or in the city by itself. The storm water drain on the street is not a rubbish bin. It comes as a surprise to many people that the storm water drainage system leads storm water into water bodies as such. An easy way to protect your local waters is to put your rubbish in the bin,” says Environmental Specialist Marika Visakova from HSY.
The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of the routes of rubbish to water bodies and to highlight the residents’ own contribution to the eradication of the problem. Over the past two years, Mahanpuruja muovista has received a lot of positive feedback from passers-by. It is hoped that this has already had an impact on people’s behaviour.
“Espoo has a unique diversity of aquatic wildlife. Preventing littering is a simple and easy way to reduce the load on our magnificent water bodies. Plastic waste that has ended up in the sea and lakes is almost impossible to remove afterwards, as it breaks down into microplastics, mixes with the water column or ends up in bottom sediments. It is great that Espoo is visibly taking part in the campaign again this year. This will also increase people’s own ability to have an impact on their environment,” says limnologist Ella Pippingsköld from the City of Espoo.
The cigarette butt does not belong in the fish’s mouth
In addition to the impressively stickered drain covers, the cities run an animated video on their display boards during the campaign period, featuring a fish gulping down a cigarette butt into its gills, thinking it is food, and immediately spitting it out. Cigarette butts are in fact the most common type of rubbish found on the shores. For example, nearly 13,600 cigarette butts were collected from the shores of Finland’s waters in 2020 as part of the Clean Beach campaign of the Keep the Archipelago Tidy association. A tobacco filter is made of a plastic-like substance that can take more than ten years to decompose, depending on the circumstances. In addition, a cigarette butt contains dangerous chemicals that spread in the water and are harmful to animals.
“In addition to cigarette butts, there is a considerable amount of plastic rubbish on the shores, especially picnic wrappers and disposable plates and cups. Everyone can therefore contribute to solving the littering problem by taking care of their own rubbish,” says campaign coordinator Jutta Vuolamo.
In Espoo, street drains with stickers can be found at the Otaniemi metro station, Tapiontori, Opintie, Piispansilta, Kiltaraitti, Kirkkojärventie and Läkkitori. Launched for the third time, the Mahanpuruja muovista campaign is implemented on 16–30 August 2021. In addition to the cities in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, it involves Joensuu, Lahti, Rauma, Turku and Vaasa. Savonlinna already decorated its street drains with stickers earlier in the summer.
Rubbish ending up in street drains to be examined in 2022
The Ministry of the Environment has funded the Mahanpuruja muovista campaign with EUR 74 564 from the water conservation intensification programme. This will allow the campaign to continue next year as well. In addition, the plan for the campaign in 2022 is to examine littering through storm water systems by installing filters in street drains that collect litter.