The RepescaPlas project collects three tonnes of marine litter in Gandía, Marín and Vigo

During its implementation throughout the year, the RepescaPlas project has collected more than 3,000 kg of marine litter from the ports of Gandía (Valencian Region) and Marín and Vigo (Galicia). Following the characterization tasks finished in October, near 8,000 items have been collected, counted and characterized depending on the type and category of litter.

These figures are ten times what was initially proposed for the collection in terms of weight of marine debris and exceed the 1,500 items envisaged in the project proposal. This kind of characterization, performed by experts from the Asociación Vertidos Cero, counts and classifies the marine debris collected thanks to the methodology developed by the MARNOBA platform. This makes easier obtaining increased knowledge on marine litter accumulated in seabeds, information to be incorporated in the marine litter monitoring programme of the Ministry for Ecological Transition.reciclado-plasticos

In particular, in the case of Gandía, the most frequently found items are food packages and bags, both in the category ‘plastics’, of which 995 and 967 articles have been collected respectively. On the other hand, in the ports of Marín and Vigo, industrial packages and plastic sheets and bottles have been found, 473 and 460 items respectively.

Both in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean plastic articles predominate, but other kinds of items have been also found in both areas, such as metal objects, a total of 465 of beverage cans or others, a total of 308 pieces of clothes and fabrics. In addition, objects such as fishing lines, ropes and other fishing products like octopus pots and fishnets, the latter found only in the Atlantic area.

The project RepescaPlas is being developed with the collaboration of Fundación Biodiversidad, the Ministry for Ecological Transition through the programme Pleamar, co-funded by the FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces). The project is coordinated by AIMPLAS and Fundación Global Nature, Asociación Vertidos Cero, the University of Vigo and the Fishermen association of Gandia participate too.