Abandoned garbage in nature is a real blight on the environment: it pollutes water and soil, has a direct impact on wildlife, and ruins the landscape, with negative consequences for tourism as well. This problem becomes especially evident as the snow melts. It is from this realization that the foundation, created by Laurent Thurnheer in 2001, was born. Reducing the impact of human activities in the mountains must be a priority in an Alpine country such as ours. Many waste collection initiatives exist in Switzerland. Summit Foundation seeks to bring together all those that take place in the mountains within the Clean-Up Tour.

Microplastics are everywhere. According to a recent study, a human ingests an average of more than 5g of microplastics per week, the equivalent of a credit card (1)! In addition to the transport of waste (macro-waste, micro-waste and nano-waste) by water, microplastics are also transported by wind. Early scientific studies showed their presence in totally uninhabited mountain regions, in alpine lakes over 1500 m above sea level (2). Switzerland is considered the water castle of Europe, yet its waters
are found to be as polluted as those in the Mediterranean Sea (3). Action against plastic pollution, including in our mountains and waters, is urgently needed.

(1) Kieran D. Cox, Garth A. Covernton, Hailey L. Davies, John F. Dower, Francis Juanes, and Sarah E. Dudas. Environmental Science & Technology 2019 53 (12), 7068-7074. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01517
(2) Allen, S., Allen, D., Phoenix, V.R. et al. Transport and atmospheric deposition of microplastics in a remote mountain basin. Nat. Geosci. 12, 339-344 (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0335-5
(3) Océaneye. (14.07.2019). Plastic pollution of Lake Geneva is identical to that of the oceans. Retrieved from: https://www.oceaneye.ch/14-07-2019/