A Hungarian Family Completes Their 150th Beach Cleaning Drive!

By Riea Gonsalves

More than 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean, and 80% of it comes from the land.

“Plastic is the single most dangerous thing besides war.  It will kill humans”

During the week, Lisbon Ferrao and his wife Zsuzsanna Ferrao work as environmental educators, and on their weekends they clean beaches along with the help of their two kids, and a few volunteers. 

Lisbon married Zsuzsanna in 2013. After a few years of marriage, both of them shifted back to India, to start a family. “My wife is from Hungary, a landlocked area with no sea, so the sea is very close to her heart. I wouldn’t be able to come so far, had it not been because of my wife, she is very persistent. Her persistence has been so consistent, it is the only thing that keeps me going,” Lisbon says.  

It all began 4 years ago, one evening when the couple visited Bhuigaon beach with their kids on a Sunday. They noticed that their kids were playing with broken plastic toys and alcohol bottles. That is when the couple decided that each time they visited the beach, they’ll try to clean at least one full bag of plastic. It went on for a month after which Lisbon posted about it on Facebook and asked people to join. After encountering an enthusiastic response from his followers, Lisbon and his wife made all the required arrangements. But nobody came. Unwilling to give up, Zsuzsanna started cleaning the beach alone, along with her 2 children. Lisbon clicked a picture of this and posted it on Facebook, which went viral. A local journalist saw this and wrote about them, after which people started recognizing and volunteering with them. Today up to 100-150 people come to clean with them every weekend.

“One thing that I have learned throughout this journey is that people just don’t care. They don’t understand how harmful plastic can be; not only for us humans but also for the sea creature. It will kill everything around it,” he says. 

More than 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean, and 80% of it comes from the land. This plastic turns into microplastic which then turns into dust particles that are absorbed by sea creatures- we eat them. It also enters into the mangrove’s regions, around the beach, and gets stuck on the branches, which leads to the death of the trees. 

“People think I clean beaches for them but the main reason I clean is so the waste doesn’t go back into the water, to the underwater plants and creatures. These animals and trees cannot talk or express their problems, so somebody needs to do this for them. Humans will always have their problems going on. But nature cannot wait,” he says.

Up until now, he has worked on 8 beaches including Chowpatty and Versova beach, and the beaches of Vasai- Suruchi, Rangaon, Bena, Bhuigaon, Rajodi, and Arnala. 

He and his team have collected up to 250 tons of plastic. They collect the trash and keep it in one place for the municipality to pick it up. “They also tried cleaning the beach once or twice, but solely for promotional activities. They burn the trash near the highway which pollutes the land. But as long as it isn’t in front of their eyes, they don’t get blamed for it,” he says. 

One of the biggest challenges that Lisbon and his wife have faced is the utter lack of government support and initiative.  Lisbon is currently in the process of filing a case against the government.

“In Bombay, it is mandatory to segregate plastic from wet waste. The law is applied in Vasai too but the government has not implemented it yet. Reason being, more manpower and the cost of all this which the municipal is too lazy to pay. Thus the legal notice, to get them to implement this law,” Lisbon explains. 

“They're getting paid to sit on their job, and they know that you as a citizen are not getting paid to do this. So they make you run around and ignore you politely so you get tired and finally give up,” he says after having spoken to multiple officials, the commissioner, and the MLA. 

However, Lisbon does receive some support from the outside. IMM Mumbai had approached Lisbon and his wife to give a presentation on plastic. Along with this, they have also presented in 7-8 schools. Bank of Scotland and corporates from the U.S. have reached out to him to fund him for the clean-ups. “The environment is the rich man's problem. Poor people/ countries do not care. It's their last priority. They have their own troubles and issues,” Lisbon says. 

Throughout the years, he has spent up to Rs. 3.5/4 lakhs and an immeasurable amount of time cleaning beaches. When they first started organizing these cleaning drives, they used dustbins to clean the beach, that they bought themselves. But the problem with dustbins was that they needed to be dragged along on the sandy beaches which became very difficult after a while. Now they use old bedsheets in which they collect all the trash and keep it in one place. They also provide snacks and reusable rubber gloves to their volunteers. After every clean-up, Zsuzsanna washes both the gloves and bedsheets. On a few days, the snacks are sponsored by local gyms for promotional purposes, but on most days the couple is on their own. 

“Once, when my wife was out of town, I went to clean the beach alone. There was this teenager on his cycle, standing in a distance and watching me. After a while, he came to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was picking up the plastic. He looked confused and said that it was impossible to clean the whole beach alone. I told him that I knew it was impossible, but somebody needed to start somewhere. And so, he started helping me. This was 4 days before my big event on the 2nd of October. I invited him to come. When he arrived, he saw me surrounded by 1800 volunteers. That's when I told him the power of one,” Lisbon says. 

Lisbon and his wife have received many awards. But their proudest moments are when they get 1800 people on the beach for a cause, which is purely emotional, and not for monetary benefits.

He is currently trying to build a strong social media platform, where he can raise more awareness about the environment. He explains that when you have a strong influence on a million followers, the government will be compelled to answer your questions and take the required actions. 

“What is the point of living life without a cause? With no excitement? When my bones get old, and my body can’t move, I don't want to sit back and think, ‘Oh. I posted pictures on social media to save the environment,’ but to think that I got up and did something, no matter if I succeeded or failed. I don’t wanna sit back and think ‘oh everybody is corrupted, there’s no point in me doing anything,’ that’s worse,” he says.