Events
MATE's teachers and researchers team participated in the 5th Lake Tisza PET Cup
Between the end of 2023 and March 2024, a total of seven flood waves flowed down the River Tisza, Hungary, spreading significant amounts of waste into floodplain forests and reed beds. This year's 5th Lake Tisza PET Cup was organised between 27-30 June 2024 to collect and manage floodplain waste from Lake Tisza (Kisköre Reservoir) territory. Colleagues from The Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE), Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety took part in the event with their team “MATESzedd”.
In 2024, the 5th Tisza Lake PET Cup, organised by the PET Association (https://petkupa.hu/eng/), started with a bigger fleet than ever: 19 teams with 370 members took part in the river clean-up ‘competition’ with 80 canoes to paddle the river section between Tiszafüred-Tiszaszőlős-Tiszaderzs-Tiszanána-Dinnyéshát in search of waste.
The route has remained unchanged for three years, so seeing that the reed beds and floodplain were even more polluted this year was even more disheartening.
About 20% of this year's 370 participants were children from a wide range of primary and secondary schools. The event brought together professional environmentalists, enthusiastic volunteers and citizens, but the “MATESzedd" team from the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences (MATE) was the only representative of higher education institutes.
An interesting feature of the competition is that the teams make the rafts themselves on the spot before the rafting, using waste from Tisza, mainly PET bottles, as the "sole" that holds the rafts in the water.
During the 5th Lake Tisza PET Cup, the teams cleaned the river from more than 7.5 tonnes (2,320 bags) of waste in 3 days, far exceeding last year's amount. The nature of the waste remained the same, with PET bottles still the most common, as they float easily due to their weight. To mention a few other types, a lot of glass, metal cans, half a pair of slippers and municipal waste were collected from the floodplain.
The MBH Bank team won the competition, with the ‘MATESzedd’ team finishing in the middle. During these three days, the team of MATE, which became increasingly close throughout the competition, cleaned up the river stretch with varying numbers of members but unrelenting enthusiasm. Their work resulted in a significant amount of waste, often hazardous (e.g., pesticide and paint cans), being removed from the floodplain forests and reed beds.
"We believe that this is an important mission to show through action that we can and must act for our environment. It was important for us to show our students through this example that we are not only educating but also acting to make our environment safer. - MATESzedd team member”
This event is about empowerment, leading by example, and also team-building for the activists, a message to society that more and more people are joining every year.
The Institute's colleagues' participation in the 5th Lake Tisza PET Cup was supported by the 2020-1.1.2-PIACI-KFI-2021-00239 (Ministry of Innovation and Technology), the REPurpose Horizon Europe project (101118532) and the related Hungarian Government Guarantee Fund grant (2020-2.1.1-ED-2023-00237).
Hungarian news appeared here in MATE’s news section in Hungarian:
The news was shared by other local online news portals:
news about the event:
report in the Hungarian TV:
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