We’ve been in Spain for a good few months and are temporarily residing in a seaside town called Sitges, roughly 30 km south of Barcelona. It’s a pretty little town with a quaint historic centre, beautiful churches and magnificent beaches. As the gay capital of Spain it’s a feelgood town.
Sitges is a popular resort with a relaxed atmosphere and many festivals, including the well attended Carnival in February, Corpus de Sitges and Pride in June, Big Bear Week in September and the Film Festival in October. Roughly 35 percent of its population is foreign and in general people are accepting and open to anything that goes.
Because of its popularity it’s not cheap. House prices, rental prices and cost of living are high. It’s one of the most expensive places in Spain. As it’s nearly summer season it’s getting busy and the beaches are build up with beach bars, parasols and beach beds. The cost for a night’s accommodation is a minimum of about €100 and a copa de sangria will easily set you back €8.
Visitors who flock to Sitges in the summer, and its residents, are not short of a buck or two.
Life’s a beach
It’s great being here but a couple of things have been bothering me immensely. Not so long ago we were sitting on the beach close to a group of Dutch students. They all had a good time playing ball, sunbathing, swimming and generally doing what teenagers do.
When they packed up to go they left the beach littered with empty crisp packets and drinks bottles. We were watching this unfold in somewhat disbelief. Surely kids from the Netherlands know better? We approached them and pointed out the rubbish they had left behind. Grumpily one of them took the initiative to go back and pick it up.
And it’s not just teenager who leave rubbish on the beach, many people do. Spain under a European Union Directive introduced new measures in January this year to curb the use of single use plastics.
The beach is NOT an ashtray
This brings me to discuss smokers. It’s surprising, knowing the risks associated with smoking, how many people still smoke. Of course it’s entirely up to the individual but please don’t throw your filter ends on the sand. The beach is not an ashtray but the amount of cigarette butts left behind is astonishing.
When I’m on the beach or in the water, I pick them up and dispose in the general rubbish but it’s an endless task.
It’s well documented that cigarette ends essentially are made of plastic and can take up to 14 years to break apart. They leach toxic materials including arsenic and lead.
According to the Ocean Conservancy NGO, cigarette butts are the most common form of marine pollution, more even than plastic bags and bottles, with an estimated 5bn discarded in the ocean*.
Not only do cigarette ends pollute and pose a threat to marine life. How would you feel if you saw a dolphin with a cigarette butt stuck in its blow hole?
Residents of and visitor to Sitges are very likely aware of the issues surrounding plastic pollution. It’s unbelievable therefore that some are so irresponsibly careless.
Think before you smoke
The same directive mentioned in the link above has seen Barcelona outlaw smoking from its beaches. In total 500 Spanish beaches are now supposedly smoke free, including a couple of beaches in Sitges. Ashtrays have been installed at the accesses and signs stipulate it’s forbidden to smoke on the beach. However from first hand experience in Sitges it’s not working. I urge the town council to consider a different approach and explore how best to enforce this rule. The directive also stipulates that tobacco firms should pay the bill to clean up cigarette litter and educate its users to responsibly discard their butts but it’s unclear how this will take shape.
We can all do our thing, please think before you do yours.
* Quote from the Guardian article hyperlinked in this article