On Sunday, 8 June 2025 the company KING ICT and the Rovinj Club for Underwater Activities organized the Rovinj seabed clean-up campaign. Tires, carpets, plastic, buckets, glass – this is only a part of what the divers found in the depths near the pier in the center of Rovinj.
In total, 1,182 kg of waste was removed, 3,206 items – 1,440 glass, 1,078 plastic, 624 metal, and as much as 36% was waste once used as eating and drinking utensils. A month earlier, at this location, KING ICT held its big teambuilding, and for this reason, the decision was made to have the clean-up campaign in Rovinj. “During the entire year, KING ICT conducts activities of socially responsible business. However, this is most evident during teambuilding within the scope of which we always try to incorporate a humanitarian note and include all our employees.”, said Ivana Belošević, senior expert for public relations and digital communication at KING ICT.
Last year, KING ICT directed the donation to humanitarian organizations of Šibenik region and to the St. John fortress; the year before, they completely renovated the old classroom of a school on the island of Lošinj and equipped it with 24 laptops and a smart board. This time, they decided to organize a clean-up campaign, aware that this issue is more important today than ever.
Davide Brattoni, the president of the Rovinj Club for Underwater Activities said: “This year, we organized a seabed clean-up campaign in the center of Rovinj, more precisely, near the big pier. Over one tone of waste was removed. It is our goal to raise the awareness of divers and citizens who watched us remove the waste. I can say that in the last 10 years this has reduced.”
Mirta Smodlaka Tanković, PhD, the head of the Rovinj Sea Research Center said that a lot of glass was removed, whereas, unfortunately, plastic is much more difficult to track down. “More than 1,000 bottles were found, a large number of tin cans… these are items that remain at the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, it is the characteristics of plastic to float and for this reason, such seabed clean-up campaigns do not remove most of plastic”, she emphasized.
After having been removed from the sea, the waste was categorized according to materials and appropriately disposed of in the manner to reduce the quantity of waste in the environment. Everyone involved hopes that this initiative will serve as an example to others to get involved in similar campaigns, and that it will raise the awareness of citizens regarding the importance of environmental protection, the protection of the seabed, flora and fauna.
In addition to cleaning the underwater, the winners of sports competitions at KING ICT teambuilding selected 4 locally present organizations for donations by KING ICT: “Association for autism Istra”, “Our dream, their smile”, “Doi Ada” and “Woman Donna”.
