The 2023/2024 Plastic Pirates campaign in Spain has come to an end, with the participation of around 1,500 young people who sampled different rivers in Catalonia, Castilla y León and the Valencian community. Specifically, the 2023/2024 edition of Plastic Pirates involved a total of 38 educational centres in Catalonia, with more than 1200 young people who sampled 27 river sections in autumn 2023 and 31 river sections in spring 2024. In Castilla y León, during the school year 2023/2024, a total of 20 educational centres and associations from Castilla y León participated, involving almost 500 young people who sampled 6 river sections in autumn 2023 and 18 river sections in spring 2024. One educational centre from the Community of Valencia also took part in the project, sampling in both autumn and spring.

The results show that, following the trend of previous years, plastic packaging and disposable sanitary towels are the most frequently detected waste items.

The results also show that the river basins with the most waste are those around cities and industrial areas. In Catalonia, the most waste was found in the river Besós (Granollers) and Santa Coloma de Gramanet, and in Castilla y León, in Miranda del Ebro. Plastics were found to be the main pollutant, followed by paper, metal, glass, cigarettes and food. In terms of type of plastic, single-use plastics, especially food packaging and sanitary towels, were the most abundant plastic waste along the riverbanks studied, in line with previous years.

For the upcoming school year 2024/2025, we will start again with Plastic Pirates in Spain, with a sampling campaign in autumn 2024 and another one in spring 2025.