Plastic Hunting is a special activity created by N’Sea Yet and UISP Napoli where teams compete by collecting garbage in a natural area to collect bonus time for their team mates which participate in a swimming competition. A team of „hunters” goes on to collect the garbage, and for each kg collected they obtain a time bonus for their team’s swimmer which competes in a 2km race.
Objectives:
- To raise awareness on the necessity to take action to keep clean natural and urban areas and to respect the environment
- To make concrete action to safeguard the local environment by collecting plastic and other abandoned trash
- To raise awareness on the amount of garbage which is left around, unattended and unrecycled every year.
Description:
Organized by the NGO N’Sea Yet and by the local committee of UISP (Italian Union of Sport for All, one of the italian sport promotion committees) in partnership with several local organizations, in the marine areas of the southern region of Campania, the „Plastic Hunting” is a successful good practice which gives the chance to anyone to participate and unites competitive swimming and environmental protection.
The competitors are divided in teams, of which one is a Swimmer and the rest of the team is Hunters. The swimmer takes part in a competitive swimming race in open sea in some of the most beautiful environments in Italy (normally a 3,6 miles competition), while the rest of the team is collecting plastic garbage in the natural surroundings, contributing to keep it clean and put remedy to the bad behaviour of others.
For each kg of plastic collected, the team can discount 1 second from the final time of their team-mate which is taking part in the swimming competition, thus potentially making it possible for their team to win even when their swimmer is not the first one to reach the end of the race.
It’s possible also to participate accompanying the swimmers with a kayak, where the kayaks are also provided by a local sport organization.
The event has a big followers base, it has been repeated in multiple occasions and manage to both have a practical result (the collection of plastic) and a raising of awareness on the importance of physical activity, the need to take care about environmental sustainability and the possibility for anyone to make the difference when making their part, enhancing teamwork and inclusion.
Impact and Results:
The activity has been repeated with a good success during the years, calling more curious people to see the competition and to take part in it. The activity is engaging and manages to reach its aims, promoting environmental sustainability, physical activity, and the possibility for each and every person to participate and make the difference. An average of 70kg of plastic are collected in each edition, thus having also a direct impact on the environment.
Conclusions and Suggestions for Youth Workers:
The activity can be replicated and adapted for youth work, both in the same way, or in a more simple way.
Here are some suggestions:
- Distances can be much lower, and you can change seconds, kilograms and other unity of measure to make the workshop work
- Time of the competition can be adapted
- If there is not any swimming area available, it can be turned into an outdoor or urban run, a climbing competition, cycling, or something else.
Some possible debriefing questions:
- How was the activity for you?
- Were you surprised by the amount of trash that you found? Would you imagine that was the weight?
- Why do you think there is so much trash present?
- What can be done to avoid that this happens again?
- What can we do as citizens to prevent, act and react?
Links for reference:
https://www.uisp.it/napoli/pagina/caccia-alla-plastica-swimming-edition-ii
https://www.fondalicampania.com/napoli-caccia-alla-plastica-2-km-di-nuoto-a-sostegnodellambiente/
https://www.dalsociale24.it/3-luglio-caccia-alla-plastica/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1185319862231393
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD6gsqyhxWg
.