How it all started
By Katerina
“I’ve always felt lucky I was born in Greece and able to enjoy the sea at every opportunity. I feel at home at sea; I love its wildness, its unpredictability, and its incredible beauty.
Fortunately, I grew up in a family that taught me to use all necessary means to protect it: During our Summer holidays, my parents, my sister, and I we were really frustrated with careless beach visitors who left their litter lying on the sand. I remember spending hours and hours collecting trash; plastic bags, cigarette butts, and bottles.
”Growing up, I felt the need to devote more time and energy to this activity every time I was on a beach, wherever in the world that might be; from Cuba to the Bahamas and the Maldives.
Apart from gathering trash on my own, I started organizing regular coastal cleanups in cooperation with schools and volunteers in Mykonos, where I’ve been living permanently since 2000.
In recent years, I have had the opportunity to expand the range of the cleanups worldwide in places like Bahamas, Mexico, Thailand and many others.”
All For Blue
Clean-ups
All For Blue’s coastal and underwater cleanups aim to engage participants through collaboration and follow the educational seminar to reinforce what we have learned.
We wear reusable gloves and clean the beach following a zero-waste protocol.
The certified divers of the All For Blue team carry out the underwater cleanup.
We weigh all the marine debris
The collected materials are then sorted for recycling by type (e.g., plastic, glass, metal, wood).
Finally, the data is recorded in the global database of PADI AWARE.
