A call to participate

Nearby a small German river, a class and his teacher started a project to demonstrate the journey of waste along the Danube to the Black Sea

The pupils real SOS message in a bottle © Georg Flaxl

There is a lot of waste humans leave behind: Trash in various forms, visible and invisible, big and small. One of these remnants is micro plastic which is transported along rivers to the sea and causes several problems. In view of that issue a class and the local group of BUND (FoE Germany) initiated the project “Die fast imaginäre Flaschenpost“ (The nearly imaginary drift bottle) to point out how nature suffers due to the garbage.

In the village Siegenburg (Kehlheim) the teacher Georg Flaxl and his pupils placed an imaginary drift bottle in the small river Abens. They kept the bottle virtual, so they didn’t cause additional waste in their little stream. The class calculated the drift speed of their bottle and drew a map which shows the path of their message. After a few kilometres the bottle would have reached the great Danube, the national border - and ultimately the Black Sea.

The pupils picked out cities along the path and estimated the date and time on which their bottle would have arrived. On that date and time, they wrote an email to the authorities with several questions about how wastewater plants filter micro plastic. Furthermore, the kids explained their project and attached a special letter: It contains their wishes for future and an urgent call for action to protect waters against waste - for plants, fish and humans itself!

Lots of contacted various agencies for nature and water conservation replied to the pupils. Often persons in charge explained the possibilities and principles of operation for cities to keep the Danube clean and natural. This project increases public awareness for waters and the virtual drift bottle is waiting for more messages, written by pupils! Therefore Georg Flaxl is searching for transnational contacts along the Danube to spread out the message of the young generation - you are invited to contact the BUND local group by email: Georg.Flaxl(at)t-online.de. See also here.