As you know, last Saturday was Earth Day. A very important day where many people around the world come together to carry out different activities for the environment. Although these activities should be carried out throughout the year, having a special day to do so helps to spread the message and get more people interested and involved.
The theme for Earth Day this year was “Invest in our planet”, and that was what the Buenos Aires Local Guides @AdroGran , @Jesi , @CamilaPardo , @EugeGallardo and I did that day. We invest our free time to help with the collection of plastics fromRivera Norte Municipal Natural Park that is located on the banks of the Río de la Plata, very close to our city.
We had a beautiful day for this activity. It was not very hot, nor was it very cold. An ideal temperature for this type of activity that requires a lot of physical effort.
The activity was already planned by the park rangers of the reserve and two groups of volunteers joined it. To be able to do everything safely, the park rangers lent us rakes, gloves, boots and… Let’s get to work!
At the beginning, they gave us a brief talk where they explained that what we were going to do was to help to clean up a space within the reserve where the park rangers had already cleared invasive species and where they plan to plant native species. In that place, the river usually rises a lot and carries lots of waste. Mainly microplastics.
Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that contaminate water and are very harmful to health. Even last year, researchers found out microplastics in human blood for the first time. Isn’t that crazy? These microplastics are the parts that remain after the action of water, sun and wind over the plastic waste that is thrown into nature. Over time, these plastics dry out and break into very small pieces that pollute a lot. Even on the planet there are already 5 huge islands of microplastics. The one in the Pacific Ocean is so big that it is 3 times the size of France, so… Imagine how bad microplastics do to our planet and to ourselves!
The park ranger guided us to a place that was deep inside the reserve. This gave us the opportunity to take lots of photos of the trails, the beautiful vegetation that was everywhere, and we even got to see a beautiful harrier. It seems incredible that this place just 7 years ago was a barren wasteland full of garbage and with almost no vegetation. It has been recovered little by little due to the great work that the park rangers do with the support of the municipality and the lots of volunteers who help with the clean up. Incredible what human beings can do when we set out to do things right! Don´t you think?
The task of collecting microplastics is quite arduous, since you have to spend a lot of time bending over. We first had to collect as much as we could with the rake. and then we had to try to separate the plastics as much as possible. Unfortunately, some branches and leaves slip into the grout, but that is better than that plastic being left for years and years thrown in that place and contaminating.
While collecting the microplastics, from time to time a more complete object appeared, such as an old mate, soft drink caps, parts of toys, and even shoes. We called these objects “interesting things” and we entertained ourselves by collecting them, so that we could take photos of them all together later. Soon all volunteers from the two groups were contributing to the collection of “Interesting Things” and even the park ranger joined the game. 
After two hours of work, we already had all our bags full, and we proceeded to return to the entrance of the reserve with our booty. We took the corresponding photos and said goodbye to the park rangers and the other volunteers, with the feeling of having helped our planet at least a little, but with a bitter taste since due to the large amount of plastic in the place, a lot of extra cleaning days will be needed to see the place completely clean.
At that time we were starving, so we had to go to a place to eat. Our next stop was a beautiful restaurant next to the river called Perú Beach. It was a beautiful experience eating together on the banks of the river!
Here ends the meet-up as was originally planned, but as always happens in the meet-ups that we have in Buenos Aires, we enjoy hanging out together so much that we must extend the day doing other things that were not in the original plan.
You may now wonder how our meet-up continued. Dear reader, first I must ask you: Do you know the 3 Rs? If you don’t know them, you can read the interesting article by Jesi The 3 Rs: Right on Maps!. You may be wondering now what all this has to do with the meet-up. Well, here I will explain. One of the Rs is Reuse. Reusing means giving used things a second chance. What better place to implement this R than touring an antique fair? Yes! A few steps from the place where we were, there was a huge antiques fair. Good luck to us and what a great place to continue an Earth Day meet-up! Don´t you think?
They sold all kinds of used objects and it was so big that we spent a good time walking through it. It was even a lot of fun remembering old times when we used similar objects and some of us even bought some little things we needed.
Moral: Whenever you can, before buying something new, think if it is not possible to give a second chance to an already used object. If we buy brand new and throw away all the time, we keep adding trash to our beloved planet and even adding microplastics to the oceans, rivers and our bodies as well.
At this point you might be wondering… Does this meet-up finally end here? Well… no… at that point of the day we were wanting a coffee and something delicious to eat. Thinking about where to go, Jesi told us that the Starbucks coffee shop chain was organizing different initiatives for Earth Day, so we looked on the map for the closest one and there we went. What a surprise when we got to the place and we found that they were giving away their reusable cups and even with the coffee of the day for free. What good luck to us!
At last, late in the afternoon, we decided to end the meet-up and to return to our homes with the satisfaction of having done so many super interesting things together for Earth Day. A really nice day, where we all really enjoyed ourselves, we learned a lot and we even took reusable cups for our coffees.
Do you want to read more about Earth Day and environmental care as a Local Guide? I recommend you read the post Earth Day 2023 - Invest in Our Planet [as a Local Guide]. A great post written by @ErmesT where he gives excellent suggestions for actions to do as a Local Guide. You can also read the post5 easy ways you can help the environment on Google Mapsby @DeniGu and pay attention to the recap of the new meet-upAll taking care of the Earth that Jesi organized for today in Buenos Aires.
If you want to see all the photos we took during the meet-up, you can review our photo album.
Please let me know in the comments what you think about our meet-up and if you were able to participate in any Local Guides Clean The World meet-up or if you would like to organize one.
See you in the next recap and Happy Earth Day!
Ceci
. Saludos 
. Los regalos de Starbucks fue un muy lindo cierre también! Igual aclaro que creo que lo que pasaba de Starbucks lo vió 
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