Local youths stage 'clean-up day' for Zaragoza park

JUST to prove last month's footage of teenagers cleaning up the streets of Logroño following a night riot was not a mere one-off, another bunch of youths in Aragón has busted stereotypes by de-cluttering a local park 'because it was there'.

Around 15 kids and young adults, aged between 13 and 27, formed a 'cleaning squad' entirely through their own initiative and scooped up all the litter dumped on a Zaragoza 'pump-track'.

Although they did not do it for fame or recognition, the pictures a local woman uploaded on Facebook attracted over 300 'likes' and 'reactions', and at least 50 comments.

Donning the requisite masks and surgical gloves, they filled sacks with rubbish and separated those which could be recycled following a full day's graft in the Goya Park area.

The 'pump-track', a BMX circuit built three years ago and always busy – especially at weekends – is often used by the youngsters who cleaned it up, as well as by other residents of varying ages in the Goya Park and Actur neighbourhoods.

Mario Cerrillo, 14, and his friend Carlos Javier Cuenca were the main organisers.

“Carlos didn't like to see the state of the circuit and decided to round people up to help clean it,” Mario explains.

“He and I organised it between ourselves via Instagram.”

Most of the rubbish was drinks cans and plastic bags, which have now been dumped in the 'yellow bin' for recycling, but also included discarded disposable masks, which cannot be recycled even though they are mostly plastic fibre, due to the potential health risk to 'sorters' at the plant. 

“We spend a lot of our evenings [on the track] and we hate to see it looking like this, but the 'summons' was a great success. It was the first time we'd done this, but I wouldn't mind doing it again. People have been really kind to us about it,” Mario reveals.

Numerous passing residents slowed down as they walked by to see what was happening.

“They stopped us and asked us what we were doing, and told us we were doing a great job,” Mario said, feeling justly proud of himself and his co-workers.

The woman who uploaded the Facebook photos, after checking with the teens that they did not mind, said that among the flood of positive reactions they attracted were pledges from other local residents to join the cleaning brigade if they arranged another session.

Mario hopes to be able to avoid having to do so, by appealing to the public to show some community spirit when discarding their rubbish.

“If we could all throw our litter in bins or recycling banks instead of on the floor, we'd be doing ourselves a great favour,” he urges.

The brigade participants know only too clearly how the public feels about 'the youth of today', especially at the moment when reports of Covid-19 outbreaks originating from gatherings of friends out enjoying themselves lead to their generation being blamed for spreading the virus.

“People think we're the ones who are responsible for littering and other anti-social behaviour,” sighs Mario. 

“But we all do some things wrong and some things right, whatever our age.”

Goya Park residents' association chairman Jesús Barrena says he is 'very proud' of the kids.

“We love that there are youngsters so committed and with such a super-responsible attitude,” he said.

“These youths could be the future of the residents' association. We can see we've got young people here who, sooner or later, are going to be lending us a hand and taking over from those of us who've been at it for years.”

The above photographs were published in regional daily newspaper El Heraldo de Aragón, and were taken for Facebook by the local lady who witnessed the youths at work.