It doesn’t stop with the used toilet paper this volunteer found. “You would have to miss a sock or a shoe”, kiosk owner Siska Kanninga laughs. “We also sometimes find full diapers. Many people also leave their inflatable material behind when they have finished swimming.”
Forest ranger Linde Veldhoen also helps with the cleanup. “Once we found a swimming pool. So there are people who go to a swimming pool and take a swimming pool with them,” she chuckles. “We also often find inflatable toys or whole barbecues that people leave on the beach after use.”
Litter on the beach is not pleasant for people who come to sunbathe, but it has even greater consequences for the animals.
“Animals see a tasty snack in the waste, but they actually eat plastic,” says forest ranger Linde Veldhoen. “For example, an animal that eats the remains of a cigarette butt cannot digest it at all. The feeling arises that the stomach is full, while of course there are no nutrients in a butt at all. Due to this lack of nutrients, the animals can eventually die. “
Kanninga hopes that beach visitors copy the good behavior of the volunteers. “I hope that bathers see us clean up, so that they catch themselves that they can also clean up their waste a little better.”
Veldhoen adds: “It has been scientifically proven that when people find a clean environment, they also leave it clean. Now we just have to make sure that people find a clean environment.”
According to the forest ranger, this should not be a difficult task. “There are many trash cans in the parking lot and on the beach. We understand that people want to take good food to the beach, but just throw it away at the end of your visit.”