In Portugal, EndPlasticSoup Portugal reached a major milestone by launching, from 10 to 16 November 2025, A Semana do Mar sem Plastico (Plastic-Free Sea Week.). This initiative, the first of its kind at national level, aimed to raise awareness and educate the population about the challenges related to plastic pollution. The campaign was an outstanding success: more than thirty clubs were mobilised, and over two thousand people actively participated in more than 110 different activities.
On this occasion, the organisers created a small educational booklet, printed in 2,000 copies, funded by the clubs and distributed to numerous schools throughout the country, encouraging children to reflect on lifestyles that can help reduce plastic consumption. More than five thousand children benefited from educational sessions.
In addition, a series of six educational posters was produced for use in temporary exhibitions in schools, libraries, and public buildings, in order to reach an even wider audience. To strengthen the visual and symbolic impact of field activities, several hundred orange bags bearing the End Plastic Soup colours were also distributed. These were used during beach, dune, and forest clean-up operations, now referred to as “lixathlons”.
Lixathlon: A Rotary sporting activity that consists of collecting litter. The term results from the contraction of two words: in Portuguese, “lixo” means “waste” or “trash” and “athlon” refers to physical activities such as the decathlon or triathlon.
The clubs and their partners demonstrated remarkable creativity by offering a wide range of activities: educational walks, conferences, drawing competitions, workshops for children and adults, musical activities involving the creation of songs on the theme of environmental protection, an orchestra using instruments made from plastic waste, a video competition, clean-up actions in natural areas, as well as the sale of pins to help finance the production of the educational booklets.
This first edition made it possible to draw valuable lessons and to gain essential experience for future stages. It has now become indispensable to bring together new supporters in order to ensure the sustainability of this initiative and its continued development. The End Plastic Soup movement is therefore called upon to consolidate and expand its actions aimed at reducing plastic pollution at the European level and, ultimately, worldwide, with new projects already scheduled for 2026.
Within this dynamic, Portugal can take pride in having been a pioneer. Our friends in Morocco followed this momentum by organising, in the week following Portugal’s initiative, the Plastic-Free Earth and Sea Week, which also met with great success.
Finally, our warmest congratulations and sincere thanks go to all those who contributed to this exemplary mobilisation. They can be proud of their commitment, having demonstrated—true to this year’s Rotary slogan—that we Rotarians are people of action.
