A lesson in keeping Croatian beaches clean from Pelješac

(Photo: Croatia Honestly)

24 June 2019 – Croatia is blessed with so many pristine beaches enjoyed by millions of tourists every year, but to keep them clean for everyone to enjoy, more personal responsibility needs to be taken with an example of this happening in the village of Trstenik village on the Pelješac peninsula. 

With an influx of trash on beaches, it is important that proactive people don’t just leave the problem to the authorities and help clean up to keep beaches beautiful, which was the case in Trstenik this weekend. 

“When my husband and I got to the beach it was incredibly filthy. We arrived at the beach and saw people relaxing on the pebbles surrounded with all this rubbish. No one lifted a finger. I don’t understand. Is it me? Can you really bask on a beach filled with rubbish?,” the post on Croatia Honestly’s Facebook page read, before continuing. 

(Photo: Croatia Honestly)

“Next, we got rubbish bags from a local bar. We started to collect all this rubbish. Most people turned their heads away. But not all. And this inspires me and gives me hope in humanity. A local lady and 2 Polish tourists joined us. We cleaned the beach in 2 hours. We had a beer afterwards and we made friends. There is hope.”

(Photo: Croatia Honestly)

(Photo: Croatia Honestly)

Andrea from Croatia Honestly says that a lot of the rubbish obviously had come from yachts and boats. 

“Do I really need to spell it out? If you’re cruising along the Adriatic – DO NOT chuck your rubbish into the sea. If you see rubbish on ‘your’ beach in Croatia – can you take an initiative and start to clean it? Please? You’ll see, someone WILL join you. Don’t sit and wait for the local authorities to do it. Don’t moan about it. Do something about it. A small step like this one is the difference that makes the difference. I know many of you already do it.”