The Directorate of Sea Services of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and İSTAÇ, a waste management company, have started preparing Istanbul's beaches for the upcoming summer season.

According to a statement from the Istanbul municipality, in order to ensure public health and safety the city beaches will be cleaned throughout the swimming season.

During the summer months mobile cleaning crews of 256 people equipped with special beach cleaning machines and employed by the Directorate of Sea Services and İSTAÇ will conduct cleaning works at more than a hundred Istanbul beaches.

The cleaning crews will rid beaches of various types of waste, including cigarette butts, plastic bags and bottles.

The beach-cleaning teams collected 17,553 cubic meters of waste last year.