Alemão makes the Tour of Portugal of garbage collection and environmental awareness – Observer
The German Andreas Noe left molecular biology and began a mission of consciousness for the missionembarking in April on the “Trash Cycle”, a sort of garbage collection tour of Portugal.
In all, you will cycle about three thousand kilometers in two months, an average of “40 to 50 kilometers a day”, without breaks, using an old reused bicycle to cross mainland Portugal from North to South, promoting cleaning actionswith civil society organizations and awareness raising, schools and emergency schools.
There are two that started 19 months ago and April were already important and important points on the map of mainland Portugal, because it is “rare the ocean directly linked to the marked interior that our actions matter in situation and location”, he explains, in an interview with Lusa. .
Deciding that it is necessary to do a different project in which it is possible to do a project in Portugal, because you may be able to think that it is necessary to do something different from what is necessary, because it is necessary to open your eyes to do what it is necessary to do with people , for info and garbage. I took an old bike to give something old a new value, thinking about the circular economy”, he details.
Already living in Lisbon, where he moved in 2018, he left a career in the biomedical field behind and created the “the garbage traveler” (“Trash Traveler”, in free translation) in September 2019, embarking on several projects that he calls “extremes” to raise awareness of the problem.
In 58 days of 2020, he walked the 832 kilometers of the Portuguese coast to export the situation of single-use plastics that polluted — and populated — Portuguese beaches.
The initiative 2 people who are part of friends, and the whole group of friends, 6, plastic, after 38 friends, to catch like 1.1 million friends: in 1.1 million friends close to 600 people and more of 70 associations.
Thus, as an example of the need to “improve the entire system” of recycling and reuse, he came to the bicycle, listing cycling as “a very, very good option” to promote green mobility and show that “sustainability doesn’t have to be expensive”.
Do not admit that the “big physical challenge” will be important in the adventure, given that you haven’t ridden a bike for three years, despite doing it almost every day when I lived in Germany, where it was “normal” for everyone to use this vehicle. carriage.
Don’t buy any single-use plastics, I’ll just have a reusable water bottle. To show that it is possible to do this with just a reusable bottle. If doing this is two months, it can enter our daily lives”, he adds.
The German assumes that he expects “even more people involved” this time, not only through reunions but also through new entries, as he already has partnerships with and with several schools.
It is difficult to say how much garbage it will be possible to place, being possible “equal or tons” the 1.6 of the 2020 walkbut he always stresses that “it’s not so much about cleanliness, but about awareness”.
“If there are groups of cyclists, or people who want to get together and do a few kilometers, then that would be a wonderful way to promote this form of green mobility. It is one of the focuses of the project”, he says.
A secondary kind of project within the objective is a map of local producers of pulses as well as other products, biological projects, to provide a comprehensive country guide in terms of “purchasing options and planned project”.
As a motto, the desire to “close the loop and take care of the environment”, not only in the reuse of plastic but also “in the use of light means of transport”, such as the bicycle instead of the car. “It is an effort that has already done a lot for the planet”comment.