http://helcom.fi/news/Pages/How-to-get-rid-of-litter-in-Baltic-shores-and-waters.aspx

HOW TO GET RID OF LITTER IN BALTIC SHORES AND WATERS

Category: Press release
27/05/2014 10:52

The first HELCOM marine litter workshop begins today by discussing on
the best way forward to develop Regional Action Plan for the Baltic, as
litter dominated by plastics of all sizes is a rapidly growing concern
at sea and shores alike. The Regional Action Plan on marine litter will
fulfil the 2013 HELCOM Ministerial commitment, expecting adoption in
2015, with the aim of achieving a significant reduction of marine litter
by 2025 and to prevent harm to the coastal and marine environment.

Consumer behaviour is considered as the most important reason for marine
litter in the Baltic Sea, indicate recent studies by e.g. by the Marlin
Project and ARCADIS. Moreover, as much as 48 per cent of marine litter
originates from household?related waste, including sanitary waste, while
waste generated by recreational or tourism activities would add up to 33
per cent. The urgent need of a comprehensive action plan to address the
issue is further supported by the Marlin study results stating that, in
average, close to 240 items of litter were detected per every 100 meters
in urban beaches of Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden. Plastic never
biodegrades, but with the sunlight it splits into smaller pieces ? also
into tiny microplastics that are ingested by a few marine species thus
entering the food chain.

http://portal.helcom.fi:81/meetings/MARINE%20LITTER%201-2014-107

First HELCOM Workshop on Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter

http://portal.helcom.fi:81/meetings/MARINE%20LITTER%202-2014-144

Second HELCOM Workshop on Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter

http://www.projectmarlin.eu/sa/node.asp?node=3120

Results

For the very first time, a comprehensive and comparable picture of
litter in the Baltic Sea is presented with the results of Baltic Marine
Litter project.

The Baltic Marine Litter project MARLIN has been monitoring litter at 23
beaches in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia during two years. The
results of project MARLIN shows that litter in the Baltic Sea mostly
originates from visitors at the beaches or ends up at the beach from
nearby cities. The amount of litter is higher at urban beaches with a
lot of visitors (236,6 items per 100 m) than at rural beaches (75,5
items per 100 m). The litter found on urban beaches was highly related
to our take away-lifestyle; bottle caps, plastic bags, plastic food
containers, wrappers and plastic cutlery were common items. On rural
beaches, more ?industrial? litter such as plastic ropes and construction
materials were found. The findings indicate that litter generated from
sea-based sources such as shipping does not end up on shores of the
Baltic Sea to the same extent as for example in the North East Atlantic
Area. 56% of the litter is plastic and the most common litter item over
all is ?plastic, other? which means unidentified pieces of plastic or
small plastic items that don?t fit in any other category. When all beach
types are combined, ?plastic other? counts for 25,3% of all litter found.

As millions of tones of waste are dumped into the world?s oceans each
year, project MARLIN can provide a good starting point for future
national and regional strategies in the Baltic Sea such as the Marine
Strategy Framework Directive and a HELCOM regional action plan that is
supposed to be ready by 2015.

A top 5 list of litter items found on the shores of the Baltic Sea

? Different kinds of unidentified pieces of plastics
? Glass and ceramics fragments
? Plastic bottle caps and lids
? Plastic bags
? Foamed plastic (packaging and insulation)

http://www.hsr.se/sites/default/files/marlin-baltic-marine-litter-report.pdf

FINAL REPORT OF BALTIC MARINE LITTER PROJECT MARLIN

- LITTER MONITORING AND RAISING AWARENESS

2011-2013