Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Cans of the 1980s in the Pyrenees: the journey of a garbage collector through our mountains

  • Valencian activist Rafael Sanchís crosses this summer the Pyrenees from one side to the other and carries with him the rubbish he finds in his way: between half a kilo and a kilo of waste a day, no more: “Although it may seem little, there are many fragments of many things.”

18 July 2019 - 07:00
Guztiz usteldutako platanoaren gainean pegatina berri-berria, Pirinioetan uzten dugun zabor motaren adierazle (arg: Miss Pacha Mama)

Rafael Sanchís gives the name “Clean Pyrenees” to his new adventure. The Valencian ecologist, also known as “Miss Pachamama”, has already made similar cycling trips, gathering garbage throughout the Spanish state to raise awareness of the citizens. You also have a blog to make known these datos.En this occasion, however, the trip has been made on foot. It departed in mid-June at the Cap de Creus de Catalunya and will soon end in the Basque Country, in Cape Higer, completing the 800 kilometres of the GR-11.

Sanchís collects the fragments of rubbish presented to him on the road, both those who have fallen from the backpack to the mountaineers and those who have been deliberately left. Just past the Aragonese section, answer the questions of the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón: “These mountains are impressive, as hard as they are nice, but in cleanliness they do not pass the test, neither these nor any part of the Pyrenees.”

You don't have to go to the base of the Everest camp to blush. The entrepreneur has drawn a conclusion from what he has seen in his career: “Unfortunately, plastic has reached our mountains.” He has also learned that in places where access is easier, more garbage accumulates. This is the case, for example, in Ordesa, where more tourists come: During three hours of walking to the refuge of Goriz, he has gathered around thirty paper scarves and numerous plastic items.

At 2,000 meters high there was a lot of oxidized cans from the 80’s and another piece that shows the durability of the trash that we generated in the largest lake of the Pyrenees, Ibon de Estanes: a totally rotten banana… with a new sticker on the skin. “That’s really moved me.”


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