The final conclusions were presented this week in Athens with the other participants.
The director of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park, Francesca López, this week presented the final results of the European project Plastic Busters MPAs in the protected natural area. Some eighty people from nine countries explained their conclusions at the final congress of the project, which was held in Athens.
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During 2020 and 2021, a total of 727.68 kilograms of waste was collected on the three beaches of Cabrera that form part of the project. Of this, 98% was plastic, of which 30% was disposable. In addition, a third of the marine waste originated outside the boundaries of the Park and was generated by recreational and tourist activities.
López explained that, following the audit and analysis of the presence of disposable plastics in the National Park, several actions have been carried out, such as the purchase of bulk cleaning products and larger containers to reduce plastics, as well as the installation of water dispensers for the same purpose. In the case of the canteen, compostable and cardboard takeaway containers have been introduced. The utensils used by the Park’s staff are local, environmentally friendly and in bulk. Thanks to the project, they have reusable bottles and bags and a personal hygiene kit with solid soaps, bamboo toothbrushes and sunscreen sticks.
As part of the same project, environmental education and awareness-raising activities have been organised to share knowledge about the monitoring of plastics in the sea and their prevention.
The director of the Park highlighted “the capacity of environmental education and citizen science activities to generate awareness and change”, activities that “have been possible thanks to the Plastic Busters MPAs”. The director of the National Park also added that “including these changes in the daily functioning of the Park will allow us to generate a long-term impact, in the same way that sharing experiences in forums like this one improves knowledge and increases the impact of actions”.
Plastic Busters MPAs is a project in which eleven Mediterranean marine protected areas participate and which aims to maintain biodiversity and preserve the natural ecosystems of pelagic and coastal marine protected areas by combating marine litter.
The participating natural areas have collected and analysed the waste found, sharing the same methodology and sharing initiatives to minimise the use of plastics in their protected areas.