PROJECTS
List of projects and initiatives represented in the MARLICE forum through the attendees. These are the projects that will structure the content of the different sessions. If you are attending the Forum on behalf of a project related with marine litter, send an email with your registration details, project title, logo file, url of the project and a 80-word summary to marlice@aebam.org. We will include it in the list.
A PESCA POR UM MAR SEM LIXO - (FISHING FOR LITTER)
The project is one of the commitments of Portugal towards UN SDG 14. The objective is to raise awareness and co-responsibility among fishermen so they bring to land the litter caught while trawl fishing, separate and dispose of it properly. We will be able to understand amounts and distribution of bottom litter along the portuguese coast (AIS), verify tendencies and work towards circularity concentrating litter and increase quantities that will be interesting for recyclers (nylon nets, pet bottles, and convert non recyclable packaging and other plastic litter "mixed plastics" into other products).
ACCOBAMS
ACCOBAMS is the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS). It is a legal conservation tool based on cooperation. Its purpose is to reduce threats to cetaceans notably by improving current knowledge on these animals.
ACT4LITTER
ACT4LITTER is an Interreg Med funded project aiming to facilitate efforts for tackling marine litter in Mediterranean MPAs through effective and targeted measures towards reaching their conservation targets.
BLUENET
BLUENET aims at reducing, by the end of 2020, the marine litter from sea-based sources and from the SE Bay of Biscay by 20-40 %. Several fishing vessels and ports will be equipped with fishing gears collection bins. Recovered gears will be upcycled by recycling and using them as raw recycled materials for manufacturing new fishing and aquaculture gears, closing the loop on the circular economy. The targeted polymers are Polyamide, Polypropylene, Polyethylene.
CLEAN ATLANTIC
CleanAtlantic aims to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Area by improving capabilities to monitor, prevent and remove (macro) marine litter. The project will also contribute to raise awareness and change attitudes among stakeholders and to improve marine litter managing systems.
CLEAN COAST PROGRAM
The Ministry of Environmental Protection launched a long-term project entitled the Clean Coast Program on June 20, 2005. Its aim: to solve the problem of litter on Israel's beaches, a third of which is washed ashore from the sea and the rest left by vacationers and bathers. While local authorities are actually responsible for the cleanliness of all beaches, the ministry developed the program because it found that unauthorized beaches (those without lifeguards) were not being maintained. The project seeks to promote a variety of solutions to the litter problem along the country's coastline, especially its unauthorized beaches, which include about 130 kilometers out of Israel's 185 kilometer-long Mediterranean coastlines.
ESMARES
The Directive of the Marine Strategy is a young directive, and its application in Spanish marine waters is still quite unknown to society. Therefore, this section includes different dissemination initiatives on marine strategies, with the ultimate goal of improving knowledge and perception of marine strategies and their utility to protect the marine environment.
FISHING FOR LITTER
Fishing for Litter is one of the most innovative and successful projects to tackle marine litter at sea. This simple initiative aims to reduce marine litter by involving one of the key stakeholders – the fishing industry. Participating boats are given hardwearing bags to collect litter caught in their nets as they fish. Harbour staff collect the bags from the quayside and the litter is disposed of with no cost to the fishers.
INTERNATIONAL QUEBEC-FRANCE FORUM
ÉEQ and Citeo have presented the first forum dedicated to the innovation in the recycling of plastic packaging, in Paris, February 4 and 5. We share the ambition to accelerate and put in place win-win conditions for the deployment of innovative technologies in the field of plastic packaging recycling. “Plastics solutions: innovations in recycling on either side of the Atlantic” have bring together 325 participants from Canada and Europe. Running over two days, the Forum brought together thirteen innovative compagnies from 3 continents in Paris. Every single one of them is at the cutting edge of new plastics recycling techniques and they were joined by big names in Retailand supply chain, financiers and investors, industrial partners and political decision-makers.
LETS'S CLEAN UP EUROPE
Let's Clean Up Europe! aims to bring such initiatives together in a Europe-wide clean-up event that involves and reaches as many citizens as possible. With some coordination from national authorities, the clean-up days are organised by non-governmental organisations, schools, businesses, local authorities and individuals.
LIBERA
The objective of this initiative is to raise awareness and motivate citizens to keep these natural areas free from litter. To do this, LIBERA proposes a strategy for tackling the problem which has three dimensions: awareness, prevention and participation.
LIFE EPS-SURE
EPS-SURE Project emerges as an innovative initiative whose main purpose is to prove that Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) fish boxes can be collected and recycled to be converted into new Polystyrene (PS) packaging. With this project we are one step closer from a sustainable Circular Economy.
LIFE LEMA
The Life LEMA project will give local authorities a methodologic guide and smart tools for an efficient management of marine litter in the southeast waters of the Bay of Gascogne from 2016 to 2019. Life LEMA will also encourage research of common solutions for the management of marine litter in transboundary waters by creating groups of experts that will lead dynamic sessions of improvement and follow-up on European directives and on European Funds for the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Policies.
LITTER DRONE
The LitterDrone project (Development and Exploitation of Innovative Tools for Remote Marine Litter Control and Management through UAVs) intends to develop a pilot system for the characterization of marine litter in Europe's coasts. For this it will employ new technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with high resolution cameras that will perform monitoring in beaches belonging to the Spanish national programme of marine litter monitoring on beaches in order to test their technical and commercial potential.
MACROPLASTICS POLLUTION IN THE SOUTHERN NORTH SEA – SOURCES, PATHWAYS AND ABATEMENT STRATEGIES
The project consists of an interdisciplinary consortium, which employs numerical modelling techniques, field work and monitoring strategies, as well as modern approaches of citizen science to identify sources and pathways of marine litter and to develop specific abatement strategies of plastic pollution for this region. With a strong focus on the socio-behavioral patterns of relevant stakeholders, the findings of this project shall provide local governmental and non-governmental entities with sound scientific data and action recommendations.
MARCET
The MARCET project aims to transfer and disseminate cutting-edge science and technologies to promote the sustainable development of tourism activities associated with whale watching, through the generation of new eco-innovative products or services. At inter-regional level, it will bring together centres specialised in the monitoring and follow-up of cetacean health and operational oceanography with the aim of integrating, harmonising and optimising this knowledge, infrastructures and good practices in the region.
MARES CIRCULARES
MARES CIRCULARES aims to involve different sectors to improve the awareness in marine litter, working together with the general population, councils, NGOs and fishermen. It proposes the challenge of cleaning 80 beaches and aquatic environments in Spain and Portugal, collaborating in the conservation of 100% of the marine reserves in Spain and a natural environment in Portugal and intervening in the seabed of the fishing grounds of 12 ports in both countries, with the help of more than 50 boats.
MARINE LITTER HUB
Marine-Litter Hub is a web platform that serves as a connection point (HUB) to promote the formation and dissemination of a global problem: marine litter
A space for participation and collaboration aimed at the training of trainers on the problems of marine litter: their sources, their impact, the prevention of its generation, whereas sustainable consumption and production and their reintegration into the production cycle within the concept of circular economy.
MARINE LITTER WATCH
Litter, plastics in particular, is accumulating in our seas and coasts. Information and data on marine litter is essential for tackling it. The European Environment Agency has developed Marine LitterWatch mobile app to strengthen Europe’s knowledge base and thus provide support to European policy making.
MARNOBA
MARNOBA Platform aims to collect, store and display in a simple way information about the marine litter of our coasts, beaches, floating and seafloors, through the use of an application for mobile devices (MARNOBA App). The download is free and the app is available for iOS and Android systems.
MARVIVA
Projecte Marviva is a fishing for litter project carried out by Catalan Waste Agency, Barcelona Port Authority and Barcelona Fishermen Association. The objectives of the project are to improve knowledge about marine litter in the catalan coast, analyse the sources and raise awareness among fishermen and citizens. Currently the project is running together with the iniciative Upcycling the Oceans (Ecoalf+Ecoembes).
MEDSEALITTER
The project aims at developing standardized common monitoring protocols for floating and ingested marine litter to be applied both at local MPA scale, and at the Mediterranean basin scale. The common protocols are intended for systematic monitoring, on a long-term basis, trends in distribution and abundance of marine litter, and its potential impact on key biodiversity species. The ultimate aim of the project is improving management and conservation measures to maintain the biodiversity of natural coastal and marine ecosystems, thanks to a better cooperation and networking between Mediterranean MPAs in monitoring and managing the marine litter issue. The project will propose a transnational solution at Mediterranean level for monitoring marine litter pressures, thanks to better cooperation, and based on scientific information. Moreover the project will create a MPAs Mediterreanean network to carry out integrated and shared measures providing effective solutions for the impacts of marine litter on biodiversity.
OCEANWiSE - WiSE Reduction of EPS Marine Litter in the North-East Atlantic Ocean
OceanWise is an Interreg Atlantic Area Project, aiming to develop and implement a set of long-term measures to reduce the impact of expanded and extruded polystyrene (EPS/XPS) products as marine litter in the Atlantic Area (AA). Based on resource-efficiency, participatory methods and Circular Economy (CE) principles, it will generate new and best practice within sectors using, manufacturing or recycling EPS/XPS
The objective of PANACeA is to streamline networking and management efforts in Mediterranean Protected Areas (PAs) as a mechanism to enhance nature conservation and protection in the region. The project aims at ensuring synergies between relevant Mediterranean stakeholders - managers, policymakers, socio-economic actors, civil society and the scientific community -, and to increase the visibility and impacts of projects' results towards common identified strategical targets.
PLASTIC BUSTERS MPAs
The overall goal of the project is to effectively tackle the issue of marine litter in the Mediterranean. The project directly supports the implementation of the UNEP/MAP Regional Plan on Marine Litter Management in the Mediterranean, linking and contributing also to the global Honolulu Strategy framework for prevention and management of Marine Debris. The project is also in line with the recommendations of the UfM Ministerial Meeting on Environment and Climate Change (May 2014) and the UfM Ministerial on Blue Economy (November 2015).
PLASTICIRCLE
Twenty European organisations have joined forces to reinvent the way we treat plastic packaging. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, PlastiCircle is rolling out innovations in waste collection, transport, sorting and recycling, and aims to transform plastic packaging waste into valuable products. We are developing: smart containers to increase collection rates of plastic waste; cost-effective waste transport systems connected to IoT cloud platforms; innovative optical sorting technologies to improve sorting, and; new value-added recycled plastic products. Plastic packaging is too valuable to waste - so follow our journey and find out more as we work towards a real circular economy for plastics!
REPESCAPLAS
The project will be developed during 4 years and will establish a logistics in the collection, recycling and obtaining of recycled products from the plastic fraction of marine litter. It will be an economically viable system that will be maintained thanks to the joint action of the fishing sector and the plastics industry (transformers and recyclers).
RESET YOUR HABITS
Convinced that eco-responsible behaviour depends on the promotion of viable alternatives, Surfrider invites citizens to use a water-carrier instead of a bottle and use water fountains provided by local authorities. Surfrider also challenges local authorities and European institutions to promote reusable containers and facilitate free access to drinking water fountains. We are calling for the abolition of single-use bottles and, where it is necessary, also for the improvement of retreatment and reuse of plastic bottles.
ROMULO (Robots and Modelling Underwater Litter Observation)
ROMULO merge two technologies such as underwater robotics and hydrodynamic models, to detect and map marine litter. The Lagrangian model allows to localize the potential accumulation areas. The Autonomous Submarine Vehicle (AUV) with capacity to map the seabed, records georeferenced videos. An application allows to locate the garbage registered by the AUV, obtaining a georeferenced garbage maps.
SOS REDES ALBORAN
Sos Redes Alborán is an informative, technical and participative platform focused on the effects derived from the fishing gear and its accessories when they are abandoned or lost in the marine environment. Launched in 2015 in the marine demarcation of the Strait Alborán, it focuses on marine spaces and species subject to some protection regime. Since its implementation in 2015, it has carried out different demonstration actions, sampling campaigns and evaluations, counting with different groups: administration technicians, researchers, diving centers and volunteers. Initiated and maintained by Hombre y Territorio, it has received different supports and helps for the development of different phases.
UPCYCLING THE OCEANS
Upcycling the Oceans project (UTO) collects the trash that is destroying our oceans and turns it into top quality yarn to produce fabrics and products. A revolutionary project that aims to be replicated all over the world, whose main objective is to recover the trash that is destroying the sea and transform it into top quality yarn to produce fabrics and tailor clothes and accessories.