Building Mediterranean Plastic Smart Ports

Mediterranean Plastic Smart Ports in a nutshell

“Building Mediterranean Plastic Smart Ports” is a three-year pilot project funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety to reduce plastic leakage from touristic and fisheries harbours into the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Sea is a popular tourist destination for local and international guests alike. Many visitors from Northern Europe enjoy the mild, maritime climate year-round. Over the past decades, marine litter has become an increasingly visible problem for marine wildlife, also polluting beaches, coastlines and the open sea. Besides its obvious negative visual impression, plastic waste can become a hazard not only for endangered marine species, but for swimmers, divers and recreational vessels as well.

Tourism and fisheries as partners to reduce plastic leakage

Two key businesses contribute significantly to plastic use in the coastal areas, yet are also suffering from marine litter impacts: tourism and fisheries. The Plastic Smart Ports team has chosen four pilot harbours in favoured tourist destination countries, two in Tunisia and two in Türkiye, for the reduction of single-use plastics, the introduction of waste separation systems, and the increase of the recycling rates for plastic waste and end-of-life fishing gear.

Together with restaurants, bistros and hotels, reuse systems and compostable food and beverage containers as alternatives to single-use plastics are introduced in the pilot harbours. Drinking water refill stations are provided to reduce the number of PET bottles, omnipresent in the marine environment. Styrofoam fragments are also a common sight in the Mediterranean seawater and sediments. With the artisanal fishers, long-lasting hardplastic boxes will be tried for fish transport and storage to replace styrofoam boxes. Fishing gear, responsible for entanglement, a severe health hazard for both marine wildlife and sea users when lost at sea, will be collected for improved waste management and, where possible, recycling. The recovery of lost fishing gear, “ghost gear”, will also be trialed together with local diving and fishing teams. Trainings for both the gastronomy and the fishing sector personnel are offered to facilitate the adoption of reuse systems and establish waste separation for recycling.

Developing pilot Plastic Smart Ports

Four harbours, two in each of the pilot countries Tunisia and Türkiye, will serve as pilot sites for the Plastic-Smart Ports concept. Three of these harbours are tourist destinations also hosting artisanal fisheries, while one of the harbours in Tunisia focuses exclusively on small-scale fisheries.

With the aim to develop a concept for Plastic-Smart Ports in the Mediterranean, the two core work packages addressing plastic litter from tourism (WP2) and fisheries (WP3) are framed by impact monitoring (WP1) and communication and awareness raising measures (WP4). The experiences gained in the four pilot ports will be summarised with implementation recommendations for the wider Mediterranean region (WP5).

Work Package 1: Develop an efficient plastic waste management scheme
Work Package 2: Pilot reuse systems, recycling and alternative materials to replace single-use plastics from gastronomy and hotels in pilot ports
Work Package 3: Pilot tracking, collection, management, recycling, and replacement of fishing gear and fishboxes
Work Package 4: Communication & dissemination
Work Package 5: Sustainability and replicability

Project partners

We gratefully acknowledge funding by