Nortek Brazil cleans up 240 kg of trash from beach near their office

Nortek’s Brazil office is located near the beach in the city of Florianópolis. The team often enjoys the area for swimming and surfing, including Nortek Brazil director Diego Bitencourt, who takes to the waves every week. As part of their sustainability goals for the year, the team organized a cleanup of the beach near their office, in partnership with NGO Instituto Aprender Ecologia.

Choosing a high-traffic area loved by Nortek employees and tourists alike

Nortek Brazil’s Francine Soares explains that they chose the area, Ponta das Campanhas, because of the high traffic it receives and their ability to make an impact.

“There are a huge number of tourists in this place because it also gives access to the island we have here,” she explains.

In addition, this location allows for divers, enabling the team to gather trash from beneath the surface in addition to on shore. The team had six divers in the water and about 30 more people collecting trash onshore.

Over 240 kg of trash collected in just an hour

Soares says the team was surprised by how much trash they found in the area. Working in three groups plus the divers for an hour, they collected and removed over 240 kg (529 lbs) of waste, comprised of drink containers, candles, plastics, tires, rope and even a bicycle.

In addition to the Nortek team and Aprender, some additional NGOs including Fundação Projeto TAMAR joined the efforts, as well as some local beachgoers who saw the cleanup happening and wanted to help.

“Something that was cool about it was that people who were there—they weren’t volunteers, they didn’t know about the cleanup—they just came and joined us to do the cleanup as well,” says Soares. “There’s something nice about it.”

Making a difference to the marine ecosystem

The NGOs the team worked with will use the information from the trash collected during the cleanup to perform analysis on how the trash removal will affect the local marine life in the area. According to Aprender, the area is frequented by dolphins, turtles and even right whales who use the area to give birth and rest.

Future cleanups in other areas

According to Soares, while the Brazil team’s plan was originally to just host one cleanup, the event was such a success they are now planning to hold at least two per year, including another one before the end of this year.

Future locations may include another nearby beach the team considered for this cleanup but decided against because of the lack of access for divers. Because they were able to remove so much trash from onshore alone for this cleanup, they think the other location would be a perfect fit for a future event.

The Nortek team would like to extend a big thank-you to everyone who volunteered their time and labor to make a difference at this cleanup.