Gemeinsam anpacken

School classes for clean oceans 2025

HSV or St. Pauli Do you want to be an animal rescuer ... we got straight into conversation with the 60 pupils and teachers from the fourth grade of the Eduardstrasse elementary school in Hamburg.

Heike Werner 16.5.2025

Sylt räumt auf Kampen

Turtles, lobsters, sharks and unicorns

In bright sunshine, we met on April 23 at 2 p.m. in the parking lot of Buhne 16. The Kampen Tourist Service and Bye Bye Plastik had invited us to a joint Beach Clean Up as part of the Family Weeks and the big spring campaign Sylt r umt auf. Under the motto that every small action can make a big difference, we wanted to get active. And a good 30 people came together, mainly families with children, to take part in this great campaign for the sea and nature. This time there was a special twist to the collection: after the clean-up, our waste was to be turned into works of art on the beach. Already on the beautiful path through the dunes to the beach, the young people in particular set off on their search and collected their first finds, mainly discarded butts. At Buhne 16, the beach toilets were actually already well frequented and the first layer of sweaters could be discarded. Wonderful weather, fresh wind. Armed with the white collection buckets, we headed north to spend an hour clearing the sand of plastic and other waste. Heike showed and explained to almost everyone what kerosene looks like, where it comes from and that it has no place in our North Sea. The children rushed ahead enthusiastically. But the buckets filled up a little more slowly than usual and expected. Meanwhile, there was a very wide track along the upper edge of the beach, which looked as if the beach had been sieved. After we had left the beach cove far behind us, we came across several fairly large piles at the foot of the dunes, consisting mainly of shells and stones, straw and stench, feathers and garbage. Here we found the usual range of compact piles of fishing nets, ropes, lids, packaging, small plastic pieces of all kinds and colors. And the best material for the final part of the campaign. Back at stage 16, the action began. The younger and older artists emptied their buckets and immediately began to transform their waste finds into small, colorful wonders. Directly on the smoothly wiped sand as a canvas. In an amazingly short time, imaginative creations appeared before our eyes and, as if the participants had agreed, most of the works were sea creatures. A jellyfish made from an old seat with long red net tentacles. A large shark with an umbrella, beer bottle and much more. A delicate turtle made of strings with a tennis ball in its shell. A red lobster made mainly of colorful lids and butts. A delicate crab with plastic button eyes. And finally the fantastic unicorn crab, which carried what was probably the most well-traveled piece of furniture in its body, a piece of packaging with Chinese characters. It was then a really difficult task to choose the four winners, because all the figures were great and luckily we had a small, wooden medal from Bye Bye Plastik for each of them. And as the main prize, the staff from Kampener Tourismus Service presented four pretty glass Soul Bottle drinking bottles with the flower of life. Then it was time for the obligatory weighing. All the waste was filled into a blue sack, those who wanted to were able to weigh it and then it was actually 12 kilos that came together. Satisfied and happy, the families said goodbye and our group split up again. Shortly before we set off back with our buckets and collecting tongs, the riddle of the sifted sand was solved The municipality of Kampen has a new beach machine that runs along the beach once a week during the main season and sifts out the sand.

Atma Khalsa 7.5.2025