Kaivopuisto was covered in garbage after May Day – volunteer cleaners are afraid that plastic garbage will end up in the sea

An overflowing garbage can in Kaivopuisto on the morning after May Day.
The accuracy of hitting the garbage can by the holidaymakers was not quite right this year either.

The cleaning, which started early on Tuesday morning, was nearing its end at eight o’clock in the morning.

Helsinki’s Kaivopuisto was like the wake of a storm early Tuesday morning. The first cleaners of the morning were greeted by the smell of garbage and May Day parties, a huge number of seagulls and hundreds of bottles of sparkling wine.

The city of Helsinki’s construction services company Stara was there to clean up the partygoers’ trash as early as three in the morning, and the volunteer clean-up work organized by the environmental organization WWF started at seven in the morning.

– In particular, there seems to be a lot of scum bottles and various food packaging, such as chip bags, plastic cups and other plastic garbage.

Early in the morning, the park was quite littered with May Day revelers, says WWF marine expert Iiris Kokkonen.
WWF marine expert Iiris Kokkonen was cleaning the Kaivopuisto area from seven in the morning.

There are also larger items, such as camping chairs and picnic blankets. According to Kokkonen, in Kaivopuisto, which is located by the sea, the risk of plastic waste ending up in the sea is high.

– There is so much light garbage here, such as food packaging and balloons, which are easily carried by the wind into the sea and can take hundreds of years to decompose. Even when they break down, they become microplastics, which means they don’t disappear anywhere.

Bottles of sparkling wine in Kaivopuisto on the morning after May Day.
Bottles of sparkling wine seemed to be enough on Tuesday morning, even though the city of Helsinki exchanged 20 empty bottles for a movie ticket as usual.

At eight in the morning, the cleaning crews were already at the end.

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