The Mediterranean island of Ibiza has many quaint villages, beautiful beaches, picturesque countryside and special places to be enjoyed by both tourists and local residents. As well as being a fantastic attraction, it also represents an enormous responsibility for local authorities, who need to keep everything as clean and tidy as possible throughout the whole year. However, with limited government budgets for maintaining the island in good order, it is essential that the local population - and wherever possible the tourist visitors - also lend a hand in this vitally important task.

In order to help with this situation and to inform everyone how they can participate, the environmental association 'Ibiza Ecologic' (Greenheart Ibiza) launched a special campaign called 'Ibiza Limpia' (Clean Ibiza), with a series of actions being carried out in 2010.

The first phase of the campaign consists of making a short video (SEE BELOW) for viewing by both tourists and residents, which explains the many ways we can all assist in taking care of our beautiful island. It will contain easy to understand information about reducing our waste, plus footage from the clean ups of beaches and other public places, whilst also explaining the whole process of recycling on the island. It is intended that this video will be shown to passengers arriving to the island by boat or aeroplane and should at least help inspire a wider public recognition of the important role played by citizens in maintaining our fragile environment in better condition. Other graphical information should be displayed in such places as the local airport and bus stations, as well as in island newspapers and magazines, like Ibicasa, 'Todo en Ibiza' and the island business guide 'Guía de Ibiza & Formentera', whose generous management have been supporting our movement for many years.

The Ibiza limpia team, together with local authorities, have organised various beach cleaning events throughout the summer months of 2010 in different parts of the island, to raise environmental awareness and give everyone a chance to 'join in' the action.

We encourage local businesses and the island administration to contribute as much as they can to this campaign, which will surely result in a cleaner, more healthy place for all of us to enjoy.

See the reports below for details of actions carried out in 2010.
SEE OUR SHORT FILM BELOW.

This Summers first out of five, BEACH CLEANING EVENTS took place at:

CALA GRACIO on Thursday 15 July from 18.00 - 23.30 hrs.

A day of local eco-consciousness and fun, with beach cleaning activities and info on ecology, recycling, permaculture, the global transition movement, and the projects of Greenheart. * live MUSIC & ENTERTAIMENT by the group of artists   INSPIRAL. * After Sunset you one could watch the movie HOME next to    beach bar ’Sa Bresca’.

ECO BEACH IBIZA 2010 * 2  -  Second Local Eco Consciousness Event Pinet Playa

On Thursday 22 July, 2010 from 6pm in Pinet Playa, in the bay of San Antonio, the group Ibiza Ecologic (Greenheart), performed the second ‘eco-consciousness’ event in the series Ibiza Limpia (Clean Ibiza).

This time, the volunteers cleaned the whole area around the ‘Reggae Bar’ and with the help of four divers, also cleaned the bottom of the sea, removing lots of old bottles and a wide variety of other rubbish.

The cleaning event was accompanied by the music group ‘Seres’, who sang their songs about the beauty of the nature and the protection of our planet.

After all the rubbish had been separated for recycling, volunteers watched the movie ‘Home’, on a screen mounted inside the Reggae Bar, to finish off the eco-conscious event and leave everyone with a strong message about the part we must all play as true guardians of our mother Earth.

On Thursday 19th of August from 6pm, Greenheart made the third Eco-conscious event in the’ Ibiza Limpia 2010’ (clean Ibiza) series, by cleaning Cala Martina next to the Camping La Playa in Es Canar

As usual we had a multi-national team of more than 20 people collecting a variety of garbage over a two hour period, as well as the presence of divers cleaning the bottom of the sea.

Having lots of fun and awakening the consciousness of beach users throughout the event, we left the whole area totally free of rubbish, just as we’d like to find it when we return in the future.
Once again, we have shown that by working together we can leave our planet cleaner and more beautiful!

After finishing the cleaning, we all went along to the Hotel ‘Ciel Azul’ some 300m from Cala Martina, where apart from having a tasty vegetarian dinner, we enjoyed an evening of live music, the projection of the film 'Home' and a small presentation of the Transition Towns movement.

As with all of our cleaning projects so far this year, we obtained the approval
and support of the local council, with the idea to form closer ties of cooperation with
the administration of each municipality of the island.

For more information on the ‘Ibiza limpia’ campaign and to find out where and
when we do the next eco-conscious action, check out this page.

On Thursday 23rd of September, Ibiza Ecologic cleaned the beach at Cala San Vicente in the municipality of San Juan, as wel as filmed some more material for the short movie they are making.
This fourth clean-up in the Ibiza Limpia 2010 series was quite a fast job, as the
beach wasn't really dirty and the event was virtually rained off after only an hour of activity.
However, the beach cleaning team enjoyed a very nice dinner in the hotel next to the beach and later watched the movie 'Home' in a special room provided by the hotel management.

Armed with gloves, buckets and garbage bags, the environmental organisation Ibiza Ecologic (Greenheart) finally completed their 'Ibiza limpia 2010' island beach cleaning programme on Saturday 16th of October, when they cleaned the rocky coastline at the end of Calle Ramon Muntaner in the Figueretas area of Ibiza town.

During the whole campaign, the group cleaned beaches in all five municipalities, beginning with Cala Gracio in San Antionio, then Pinet Playa in San Jose, Cala Martina in Santa Eulalia, Cala San Vicente in San Juan and Figueretas in Eivissa.
'We intend to go on cleaning different areas of the island throughout the winter, together with other resident cleaning groups, but also hope to organise a meeting with all the environmental councilors sometime before Christmas' says ecologist Chris Dews, president of the association Ibiza Ecologic.
 

Meanwhile, members of the organisation are still filming scenes for a three minute educational movie they are making on the topic of 'Cause, Effect, Solution' and should have it ready for showing before the end of the year.
They are also planning to install a large poster in the entrance to the airport, alongside the disco adverts, saying something like 'Welcome to Ibiza', please help us to keep the island beautiful for everyone to enjoy (Written in several languages).
This will need some suitable sponsorship of course, but Chris is optimistic and says
he's sure there's someone out there who will like the idea enough to help make it happen!

Hopefully their efforts from this year's campaign will at least bring some kind of response from both the island's population, as well as from the local government, so we'll have a cleaner and more beautiful island to enjoy into the future.