MARLESS (MARine Litter cross-border awareness and innovation actions) project, implements concrete and joint interventions aimed at solving the problem of marine litter in the Adriatic Sea from different perspectives and methods of intervention. The project therefore implements various actions of monitoring, management, prevention and removal of marine litter.
One of the activities of the project is monitoring of the generation of waste on the beaches during the tourist season. In order to implement this activity, the project partners organized several meetings/training sessions with various beach concessionaires during 2021. and 2022. The meetings were organized with the aim of actively involving concessionaires in research into the assessment of the creation of marine waste on the beaches and in the implementation of environmental protection measures that will be proposed in accordance with the results of the analysis derived from the collected data. During the 2021 and 2022 tourist season, concessionaires recorded data on the amount and type of waste collected during regular beach cleanings. At the end of the season, the involved concessionaires submitted data collection that is now being analysed by the technical group of the MARLESS project.
After the successful completion of data collection, concessionaire representatives were invited to participate in the International meeting of the beaches concessionaires. Representatives of the Italian regions of Puglia, Veneto and Emilia Romagna and the Istrian region from Croatia took part in the meeting (in person or online).
During the meeting, the activities and results of the MARLESS project were presented, new methodologies for collecting data on the occurrence of marine litter were discussed, best practices were exchanged between the involved regions and innovative pilot projects for the collection of marine litter were presented.
During the meeting, the propulsion system "Collec'Thor" financed by the MARLESS project, which attracts and collects everything floating on the surface of the water, was ceremonially launched. Completely silent, it is designed to be placed at the strategic edges of harbours and piers where it identifies and collects floating waste. The system works continuously in a silent manner and creates a large attractive perimeter. Up to 100 kg of waste can be collected before emptying is required.
After the meeting, an exhibition of photographs of the MARLESS project was opened on the topic of marine litter, which is intended to raise awareness of this global problem.
