Group to Tackle Trash From Costa Rica’s Rivers

With the help of 400 volunteers, the Costa Rican nongovernmental recycling organization Terra Nostra will collect solid waste items from waterways and their environs across the country this weekend in order to contribute to an international index on solid waste.

The effort is part of Terra Nostra’s 2010 International Cleanup Campaign, established within the framework of the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup program.

During the cleanups, teams will separate, classify and weigh the solid waste they recover. The results will be presented to the Ocean Conservancy, an international marine conservation group, which will use the information to create a worldwide index that quantifies the amount of solid waste that reaches the ocean via rivers and canals.

According to Terra Nostra, this data about the origin of the solid waste will serve as a critical tool to help establish recommendations and policies to eliminate ocean pollution by solid waste worldwide.

The cleanups will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday and will take place in the center of the Atlantic port city of Limón, Ciudad Quesada in north-central Costa Rica, Playa Hermosa on the northern Pacific coast and Santa Teresa and Cóbano on the Nicoya Peninsula.

On Sunday, volunteers will pick up trash and recyclable items in Liberia, capital of the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

Terra Nostra will visit 50 sites across the country throughout September as part of the same initiative. For more on the cleanups, or to get involved with Terra Nostra, visit its website at http://www.terranostra-cr.org/.