Street drains – not bins but gates to the Baltic
Litter tossed on the street may be carried with urban runoff to the nearest water body and eventually to the Baltic Sea, as urban runoff is generally not treated. The City of Espoo is involved in the Mahanpuruja muovista (Plastic Indigestion) campaign, in which stickers depicting fish like perch and pike are placed around street drains to remind people that litter does not belong on the street or in street drains.
The anti-littering campaign has been organised by the Keep the Archipelago Tidy association. In the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, its implementation is the responsibility of Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY in cooperation with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.
The large, colourful fish stickers around the grates of street drains remind people that litter may end up in the sea and even in the stomach of fish. Most street litter is tossed there by city residents. The right place for litter is a rubbish bin, and when properly sorted, it is an important part of the circular economy. When rubbish ends up on the ground and in nature, it is an environmental problem and a wasted resource.
Urban runoff is rainwater and meltwater that flows along surfaces in the built environment. Urban runoff is usually discharged into street drains or open ditches, from which it flows into streams, rivers, lakes or the sea.
“As a rule, urban runoff is not treated and instead is most often discharged into nature untreated. This fairly direct route of urban runoff to the water system comes as a surprise to many,” says Marika Visakova, Environmental Specialist at HSY.
The state of water system is greatly affected by what urban runoff carries into it. The quality of urban runoff and, therefore, the state of the local water system can be affected simply putting rubbish where it belongs.
“Plastics in particular are a wretched problem in nature because they never disappear but only break down into smaller and smaller microplastics,” Visakova says.
Spot perch and pike stickers around street drains
Fish stickers reminding us of the dangers of littering have been placed around street drains. In Espoo, street drains with stickers can be found in Leppävaara near the swimming hall, on Leppävaaranraitti and Alberganesplanadi; in Otaniemi at the metro station; in Tapiola at Tapiontori square, on Kauppamiehentie and at the cultural centre; and in Matinkylä at Piispanaukio square and near the swimming hall.
The campaign runs from 19 August to 1 September 2024. After that, the stickers will be collected from the streets. The stickers are PVC-free and can be recycled as metal after use.
Plastic Indigestion is part of the PlastLIFE project. The PlastLIFE project receives funding from the EU’s LIFE programme, which has been used to produce the project materials. The content of the materials represents only the views of the project itself, not those of CINEA or the European Commission.