Best practices for reducing marine litter and promoting co-responsibility and social awareness: the MARLISCO experience

Transcription

1 Best practices for reducing marine litter and promoting co-responsibility and social awareness: the MARLISCO experience Mediterranean Conference on Combating Marine Litter in the Adriatic MacroRegion 13 May 2013, Athens The views and opinions expressed in this publication reflect the authors view and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

2 MARLISCO at a Glance FP7 Science in Society Project Budget: 4.1 Million Duration: 36 months. From June 2012 to May 2015 Coordinator: Provincia di Teramo Ireland UK Denmark Netherlands France Germany Romania Slovenia Bulgaria Consortium: 20 partners From 15 EU countries Across 4 Regional Seas Portugal Spain Italy Greece Turkey Cyprus

3 Overall Aims To increase awareness of the consequences of societal behaviour in relation to waste production and management on marine socioecological systems; To promote co-responsibility among the different actors; To define a more sustainable collective vision; and, To facilitate grounds for concerted actions.

4 Best practices for the reduction of marine litter Understand sources, distribution and types of marine litter Identify relevant policy and policy gaps Web documentary Online serious game Educational material Aims are achieved through a variety of activities Marine litter interactive exhibition in 14 countries Video Contest for Youngsters in 14 countries 12 National Fora

5 Moving towards best practice 1. Identification of best practices that can be used to reduce marine litter in European Seas 2. Evaluation and selection of those with the greatest potential 3. Analysis of the collected best practices to identify trends and connections 4. Preparation of a guide for key stakeholders

6 Identification of Best Practices Predefined template to record key information about and categorize the best practices: Theme: Awareness Prevention Mitigation Type of Initiative: Policy/Regulation Implementation Practice/ Activity/ Action Economic and Market Based Instrument Campaign Other Scale of Implementation: Local/Sub-national National Regional European Global 72 best practices were submitted and appear on an interactive map on

7 Evaluation and Selection of Best Practices Ranked the best practices according to 4 criteria: Impact (chances that it could significantly affect the amount of ML) Sustainability (environmental, social and economic) Applicability exploitability (replication potential across Europe) Data availability (based on what was recorded in the templates) Practices that can be implemented across Europe and that have a great potential to reduce marine litter DeCyDe-4-MARLISCO was used: a dedicatedly developed tool that uses a participatory approach to involve key stakeholders in decision-making ( For each criterion and across each regional sea, the best practices were compared against each other:

8 Evaluation and Selection of Best Practices Cont d After going through all the criteria per regional sea, the following graphic was automatically created: MEDITERRANEAN 8% 5% 8% 13% 16% 10% 10% 18% 12% Seabed Cleaning Clean Creeks STH Harem Beach Sea Surface ML Indirect Fee System MARPOL Annex V Resp. Snack Bar At-sea Recording 57% BALTIC 13% 30% Rostock Harbor Clean Beach Recycling Fishing Nets Litter Free Med. NORTH EAST ATLANTIC GLOBAL & EU At the end of the process, we had the scores and of all the best practices, according to the pre-set characteristics/criteria. 23% 9% 8% 12% 19% 7% 4% 9% 11% Fishing for Litter Protect a Wreck Return to Offender Clean Coasts Plastic Bag Levy Coastwatch Cleaning Campaigns ML in Brittany Channel Coast 24% 21% 7% 15% 6% 27% Kuna Yala Project Dive Against Debris Trash Wall Waste Free Oceans Ocean Initiatives BREF Water Treat. BLACK SEA Innovative method of analysing and ranking best practices. 30% 6% 7% 5% 6% 8% 25% 13% Coastwatch Let's Do It My Black Sea Reduce School Waste Port Seabed Cleanup Pomorie Nessebar Seabed Blue Lid Campaign DeCyDe for MARLISCO tool developed by MARLISCO is a FP7 project funded by the European Commission. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EC.

9 Economic and market based instruments - The Responsible Snack Bars Project, Spain Initiated by Fundacion Biodiversidad, Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment Decalogue of Good Environmental Practices + Campaign asking beach snack bars ( chiringuitos ) to adopt it by signing a pledge. Photo: MAGRAMA Emphasis given by the Responsible snack bar award 526 snack bars signed up in year 1 and the second edition was launched in June 2013.

10 Practices targeting plastics The Plastic Bag Levy, Ireland In March 2002, the Irish Government introduced a 15 cent levy on plastic shopping bags coupled with awareness-raising and promotional activities. Estimated reduction of disposable plastic bags: 90% Prior to introduction of the levy, plastic bags constituted 5% of the national litter composition. In 2007 the plastic litter represented <1% of the national litter composition. There was also a dramatic reduction in the per capita usage of plastic bags (from 37 bags per person per year to 22-24) The Levy has influenced behaviour of consumers: in 2003, 91% of those surveyed believe the Plastic Bag Levy is a good idea (contrast with 40% not willing to pay, 1999). Plastic bags now have a value! Photo: Since the introduction of the levy over 196 million revenue has been collected. Importantly, this money is ring-fenced for an Environmental Fund

11 Fishing for Litter in Germany Fishermen bring ashore, voluntarily, the litter that is collected in their nets during normal fishing operations. They are given big bags in which to store waste, and disposal logistics are free All types of marine litter are targeted, depending on fishing gear. But, most collected waste is from seabed (bottom contacting gear). This suits the specificities of the Baltic and North Sea since most marine litter is concentrated at the sea bottom. Up to date, 8 harbours and about 60 fishermen participate in the project, and more than 2 tons of litter has been collected and analyzed The fishing for litter scheme is embedded in the wider NABU project Plastic free Oceans launched in 2010 and supports an intense public awareness campaign to address the issue of marine littering.

12 A Different type of Fishing for Litter Sea Surface Marine Litter Cleaning Operation, Turkey The purpose is to reduce floating marine litter It is carried out by four municipalities: İstanbul, Kocaeli, İzmir, and Beşiktaş. This practice has been taking place for 6-14 years, depending on the municipality Each municipality has a varying number of boats that it sends out almost every day. Thousands of tonnes of floating marine litter are collected each year, and where possible this is sent for recycling Each municipality funds its own operation because it is important that they ensure the longevity of the project marine litter is an eyesore and can harm tourism! The projects provide employment to a number of people

13 Addressing waste from boats and ships - The Indirect Fee System, Cyprus Every ship that enters Cypriot ports is charged a fee that gives it the right to dispose of its waste regardless of whether or not the ship will actually dispose of any waste. This provides an incentive for ships to deliver their waste to ports rather than to dispose of them at sea. The fee depends on the type of ship/boat (i.e. its size, purpose, whether it carried passengers etc) Every year a total of about 15,400 m 3 of waste is collected through this system at the three main Cypriot ports This waste is comprised mainly (about 90%) of waste originating from the preparation of food and other activities taking place in the ships bars and restaurants

14 Promoting social responsibility The Blue Lid Campaign, Turkey Without much publicity this campaign has become very popular in Turkey: over 2250 wheelchairs (manual and electric) have been given to those who need them in exchange for over 600 tonnes of bottle lids. Initiated by the Faculty of Dentistry, Ege University and the Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey (NGO). Works on a voluntary basis. Individuals or organised groups collect lids and send them to the initiators who in turn sell them to plastic recyclers/converters. As a result of the campaign, small lids are being prevented from becoming waste and possibly marine litter, plastic is recycled, jobs are created and wheelchairs are given to those who need them.

15 Lessons learned A combination of initiatives is necessary i.e. policy and regulation implementation should be complemented by campaigns, practices and economic and market instruments. The involvement of main stakeholder groups (such as fishermen, coastal tourism enterprises, divers etc) through a participatory approach, early on, leads to successful practices. Integrated approaches that involve a wide range of stakeholders and with varied themes and initiatives can be very successful. Prevention is paramount to solving the marine litter problem. Mitigation and awareness-raising actions are very important tools for raising social awareness and promoting co-responsibility so that prevention can be promoted. Innovative initiatives promoting social responsibility through citizen empowerment are becoming increasingly popular (such as CSR).

16 MARLISCO Contact Details

17 Thank You! Demetra Orthodoxou, Environmental Engineer Co-authors: Xenia I. Loizidou, Michael I. Loizides ISOTECH Ltd Environmental Research and Consultancy MARLISCO is a FP7 project funded by the European Commission. The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission