Fifteen employees working at the municipality in Bodrum, a popular resort town in southwestern Turkey, have been working tirelessly to keep the famed beaches of this Aegean region clean. In their spare time, the team of volunteers dive into the pristine waters off Bodrum and remove all sorts of garbage dumped by uncaring visitors.
Serdar Özpınar, a member of the team founded six years ago, says they came across a wide variety of garbage under the sea, from car batteries to large dumpsters.
“It makes us sad to see the clear waters here stained with such garbage,” said Eray Bartan, another volunteer.
Aegean and Mediterranean towns in Turkey, which rely heavily on tourism revenues and boast “blue flag” beaches, strive to keep its coasts clear amid an increasing number of visitors.
Last year, 180,000 cubic meters of garbage were collected from coasts and bodies of water across Turkey as part of the Zero Waste Blue project introduced by the government.
