Cleaning up, under the radar: from landmines to refuse lying in subterranean caves, these people are tackling less-visible pollution
We recently reported on the ‘ghost-hunters’ – the volunteer divers who are helping to clear up discarded fishing nets and other junked fear from the depths of the UK seas.
It got us thinking: where else are projects tackling rubbish that’s largely hidden from view? It turns out that such ambitious cleanups abound, from the Alps to Angola.
1. Dismantling old ski resort architecture
As global warming forces more and more ski resorts, especially those at lower altitudes, to shut, what should be done with the ski lifts, cables and other scrap material that’s left behind?
Since 2001, Mountain Wilderness France has been mobilising volunteers to remove abandoned resort architecture and “reverse the human footprint on the environment” as part of its ‘obsolete facilities’ campaign. It also lobbies governments to support its work through legislation. In 2023, the NGO had dismantled 22 lifts in France, though it estimates that more than 100 remain across 59 sites in the country.
Find out more: mountainwilderness.org
Image: Daniel Frank
2. Removing landmines from former conflict zones
When wars end, land is all too frequently littered with hazardous landmines and other explosives. These hinder communities’ recovery: farmers can’t farm land, and residents even fear letting their children walk to fetch water or go to school. The Halo Trust seeks to empower local people to fix this deadly menace themselves by training them to clear landmines and through their earnings, begin to rebuild their lives. The non-profit, which began in Afghanistan in 1988, now has programmes in 30 countries including Angola, the Ivory Coast, Libya, Colombia and Ukraine (pictured above).
Find out more: halotrust.org
Image: A member of an all-female demining team in Benguela Province, Angola. Credit: ©Scout Tufankjian for The HALO Trust
3. Removing litter from subterranean caves
For centuries, Croatia’s unique subterranean karst caves have been used as impromptu rubbish tips. This has polluted important groundwater sources and threatened endemic cave species, including a type of bivalve which has existed since the Tertiary period – between 65 and 2.5 million years ago).
Mossy Earth, a UK-based rewilding social enterprise, has been funding a team of local biologists and expert cave divers to remove waste from the Predolac cave in the south of Croatia and return it to its natural state. The team is also working with the cave’s owner, who manages the visitor’s centre, to discuss what can be done to prevent future littering.
Find out more: mossy.earth/projects/predolac-cave-cleanup
Image: Rubbish at the Predolac caves. Credit: Mossy Earth
Main image: HALO deminers searching for unexploded ordnance near Buch, Ukraine. Credit: ©Chris Strickland for The HALO Trust
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