Download: MarineClean Layman’s report

Project MarineClean (11/2011 – 10/2014) involves partners from Slovenia, Croatia and Lithuania. The project deals with decreasing of marine litter – one of the major ecological threats – in four areas of action:

1. collection of marine litter with new light equipment produced at Turna;
2. edible and biodegradable packaging produced at EcoCortec that will help to reduce the quantities of in marine litter due to degradability;
3. fishing nets produced at Turna and TC PoliEko that can be easily traced, collected and recycled when lost;
4. networking of products’ users and lobbying at national and EU decision-makers to promote and enlarge eco-friendly products usage as well as for intensified surveillance in the return of ship waste and for grants and/or discounts with edible and biodegradable packaging will be formed.

Proposed solutions will have positive effect on marine ecology: decreasing of marine litter in tested areas, higher number of cleaning groups/areas, higher share of edible/biodegradable packaging on ships, and a few of law changing proposals. All project products will be widely disseminated through web platforms and demonstration sessions in each participating country.

Marine littering is one of the major ecological threats. The amount of plastic
floating in oceans is increasing; in some parts of oceans there are already 6
times more small plastic parts than plankton. Plastic floating in sea is great
absorber of heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs and other toxins that accumulate in
marine animals and consequently in humans. Toxins are good for some algae,
which are so widespread in some areas that other organisms lack of oxygen.
Bio-oxo or UV-degradable plastic is not a solution, because sea water inhibits
degradation and plastics is stable, maybe up to 100 years. Share of ship
littering is variable throughout the World, ranging from 35 to 85%. The
remaining shares come from rivers, wind and lost fishing nets. Other problems
are spillages of different oils that cannot be solved by expensive cleaning
with pumping and filtering in tankers or degradation with microorganisms.