Suspended in the air, as if they were floating in the immensity of the sea. This is how the pieces of ‘Backwash’ a unique exhibition that aims to raise awareness about the abuses that we commit against the planet’s oceans and that, sooner or later, will turn against us. A laptop that who knows how it got there, a washing machine drum thrown into the water by some unscrupulous person, a figure of Darth Vader that a wave snatched from the hands of a child on the beach… all the objects in the sample were rescued from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in Sesimbra (Portugal), after carrying out the largest underwater cleaning in history organized by La España Azul, the first scientific and informative expedition that sails around Spain. In total there were 600 divers cleaning for 12 hours, as indicated by the record of this performance in the Guinness Book of Records.
EDP, an energy group specializing in sustainability that invests in offshore wind power projects and floating offshore solar power in various parts of the world, has brought together these objects in a free-to-visit ‘pop up store’ at Gran Vía 66 and has put a symbolic price that indicates the cost it entails for the planet, that is, the number of years it takes for it to decompose on Earth: for example, both the laptop computer and the drum of the washing machine would take more than 500 years to disintegrate. But those associated values can be converted into donations for charitable purposes to raise funds that will go to The Ocean Clean Up NGO, an organization that develops and uses advanced technologies to eliminate plastic waste from the oceans around the world.
Every year some 12 million tons of plastics are dumped into the oceans, home to around 80% of all life in the world, the equivalent of more than 100,000 blue whales. The divers who carried out the cleaning in Sesimbra recovered three tons of garbage, among which there were, among other things, footwear, electrical appliances and all kinds of utensils, some unusual ones such as the Darth Vader doll (now called ‘Dirty Vader’ ) or a ‘Yellow Submarine Truck Ride-On’ toy. The exhibition can also be visited online at the EDP websitewhere the associated values can also be converted into donations for charitable purposes.
During the last few weeks, different initiatives related to the protection of the oceans have taken place together with organizations committed to this end, and they are also explained to the visitors of ‘Backwash’. This is the case of the Libera Project, with which EDP is also collaborating this year in a new maritime clean-up action carried out in more than 30 locations in Spain, under the motto ‘Choosing the ocean is choosing the land’. Along these lines, last May the group supported the second edition of the underwater cleaning day in Sesimbra (Portugal), which once again broke the Guinness record: 842 divers in 24 hours, in which they were able to collect another seven tons of garbage from the seabed.
In addition, on June 22, the EDP group is organizing the international conference ‘We Choose Earth Tour’ at the EDP Gran Vía Theater (Gran Vía, 66) together with the exhibition’s pop-up store, which will be attended by renowned speakers such as Amal Clooney, Céline Cousteau or Macaco, among others. In it, they will discuss how to save the planet and will delve into the protection of the oceans. In addition, the amount collected with the Ticketing It will go to entities that work in different areas related to environmental care, energy transition and raising awareness in society, such as ECODES, La España Azul and Ecomar.
EDP is a leading international energy group in value creation, innovation and sustainability. It is part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (World and STOXX) and is also a world leader in the renewable energy sector.
In our country, where the EDP Group directly employs more than 1,550 people, it is a benchmark in the energy market, present in generation, with more than 5,000 MW of installed power, 1.4 million supply points in distribution and a marketing portfolio to business customers of electricity, natural gas and services with a consumption of more than 17 TWh/year.
