Plastic, cigarettes and litter: the unbearable carpet on Italian shores – The Republic

A green multicolored carpet, white, blue and pink waste. It is what is found on many Italian beaches: on average 714 waste every 100 meters. This is what emerges from the “Beach litter” assembled and edited for the third year by Legambiente that monitored in May 47 Italian beaches: an area of ​​106,245 square meters, equivalent to 800 beach volleyball courts, where 33,540 were found beached waste. Also this year the plastic remains undisputed queen: 76.3% of the objects found is in fact plastic, followed by cigarette butts (7.9%), waste paper (5.5%), metal (3.6 %), glass / ceramics (3.4%), wood (1.3%), textile waste (1.2%) and rubber (0.8%).

Leading, however, the top ten most found beached wastes are three small but dangerous objects: in the first place there are the plastic and polystyrene pieces (22.3%), which measure less than 50 cm, which make up almost a quarter of the waste found. Second place went to the cotton swab (13.2%) for a total of 4412 pieces, a direct result of improper habit of ‘dispose’ this waste by throwing them in the toilet and the ineffectiveness of the treatment plants. Third place for cigarette butts (7.9%): in particular the survey of Legambiente has counted 2642, an amount equal to the contents of the packages of 132, 3% more than in the 2015 survey. follow the top ten: caps and lids (plastic and metal) 7.8%, plastic bottles for drinks (7.5%), fishing nets and aquaculture (3.7%), disposable tableware, plastic (3 , 5%), building material (2.3%), glass bottles and pieces (1.9%) and bottles and containers of detergents (1.8%). Waste that hurt the environment, wildlife, economy and tourism the survey” Beach litter “, which is part of the campaign” clean Beaches and seabed – clean-up the Med 2016 “also made possible thanks to the contribution of Cial Novamont and Virosac, was carried out by volunteers of Legambiente in May 2016. the most critical situations were found on the beach Coccia di Morto in Fiumicino, near the mouth of the Tiber, where they accumulate waste from the river. Here Legambiente has found the highest number of waste: waste in 5500 than 100 meters. Waste recovered, 67% was due to the bad treatment, with the presence of well 3716 cotton swabs and several other articles (for toilet and blister deodorants). Another beach that emerges in negative is that of Olivella in the municipality of Santa Flavia (Pa), with 1252 waste in 100 meters of beach, surrounded and heavily scarred even from the crumbling cement. Also important to note the beaches invaded by waste from the fishing industry, particularly the Canovella dè Zoppoli beach in Duino Aurisina, Trieste, where as many as 65% of the waste found are related to networks of mussels and beach on Mar Piccolo in Taranto, in Cimino near the Park (with 44% of waste due to fishing).

“About 70% of the waste that comes into contact with the marine ecosystem sinks and only 15% remains on the surface,” says Rossella Muroni, national president of Legambiente. This is why “it is urgent to put in action program for the progressive reduction of waste at sea and in the coastal strip, as required under EU Marine Strategy Directive, which in Italy have not yet been put in place.”

Fiumicino

in the survey Beach litter the main indicators taken into consideration are: the composition of the waste and its quantity and size (greater or less than 25 cm). The areas of investigation have been chosen so as to effect the sampling of transects of 100 meters in length of free and not yet clean beaches in view of the bathing season. As regards the type of the monitored waste, from the survey of Legambiente that as many as 30% consists of packaging, of which 26% from packaging and food wrappers (eg. Bottles, containers, dishes), and 4% from packaging non-food (eg boxes and towels). 71% of the food packaging consists of disposable packaging plastic. In second place are the waste from treatment failure, almost 5000, and the third, the waste arising from the smoke. More than 2,000 waste-related fisheries sector (in particular networks and “socks”, mussel) with 6% and 3% we find the category of aggregates and building materials left in situ. The problem of beach litter and marine litter is also an economic problem because they require enormous resources that are used for cleaning beaches.

San Benedetto

According to a study commissioned by the European Union and implemented by Arcadis, the marine litter costs the EU well 476.8 million euro a year. This figure takes into account only the tourism and fishing sectors, since it is not possible to quantify the impact of all economic sectors. In particular, the total estimated cost for the cleaning of all EU beaches amounting to 411.75 million euros and the impact on the fisheries sector is estimated at 61.7 million euro a year.