The celebrations for World Environment Day (5 June) in the province of Ciego de Avila are an opportunity to promote the efficient management of plastics and the replacement of single-use plastics with sustainable alternatives, resulting from the use of science and innovation.

Tania Delgado Pestana, head of the Department of Environmental Policy Instruments of the Subdelegation of Environment, in the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma), stressed that in the period May-June a broad programme of activities is being carried out under the slogan «Putting an end to plastic pollution».

The launch of a children’s drawing, storytelling and photography competition, workshops such as the one dedicated to socialising the provincial results of the Cuban State Plan to Combat Climate Change (Tarea Vida), talks and conferences are some of the activities to mark the date.

As every year, he explained, the local, provincial and national media play an important role in intensifying messages related to environmental preservation.

This year, the communication products are focused on raising awareness among different age groups about the urgency of reducing plastic pollution, due to the risk it poses to life on the planet.

Important dates related to nature are framed within the framework of this day and give rise to exchanges and communicative actions in physical and virtual spaces to highlight the values of the environment and to call on people to take care of it.

On the theme of the commemoration, Delgado Pestana highlighted the success of the educational workshop «Plastic pollution: impacts on health and biodiversity», held last May with workers from the Provincial Sports Directorate.

A broad movement was also unleashed at the Augusto César Sandino Primary School, located in the city of Ciego de Ávila, in the heat of the «Recycle and Win» Pioneer Festival, which promoted the collection of plastic waste for subsequent delivery to companies in the territory that process and reuse it as raw materials to produce new resources.

This last activity also involved the teaching and support staff of the host educational institution, as well as workers from Citma’s Territorial Delegation, all of whom were motivated by the children’s enthusiasm.

Linked to the Mi Costa International Project, students and teachers from the Ramón Domínguez de la Peña Primary School, in the coastal community of Júcaro, located in the south of the Avileño territory, carried out a beach clean-up on 1 June to commemorate World Reef, Children’s and Environment Days.

In the second half of this month, an exhibition of the local development project Plásticos Florencia is planned, with the aim of showing the hoses for efficient irrigation systems in agriculture.

The hoses are manufactured by the project with plastic waste from the High Density Polyethylene Pipes Company (Ciegoplast) and other locally recycled materials.

On the occasion of World Tree Day, to be celebrated on 28 June, a planting of timber, fruit and medicinal plants is planned.

The programme of activities concludes with a youth day of environmental clean-up, from 24 to 30 June, which will involve pioneers, teachers, workers and inhabitants of various communities in Ciego de Avila.