Alarm: plastic flood in Mediterranean

Alarm: plastic flood in Mediterranean

World June 8, 2018 06:03

hamburg - A record amount of plastic is floating around in the Mediterranean. The flow of tourists will further worsen the situation this summer season, according to a report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It is high time to put an end to this flood of plastic, says the WWF.

Especially microplastic is a fast-growing problem. Although the Mediterranean Sea contains only 1 percent of the earth's water, according to the latest calculations, it accommodates no less than 7 percent of the wandering microplastic worldwide. The concentration of poor or non-degradable plastic particles is almost four times as large as in the infamous floating rubbish dump ('plastic soup') in the north of the Pacific Ocean. It concerns about 1.25 million fragments per square kilometer.

'We need to find a global solution to this waste problem. We also need an agreement from Paris for the ocean to stop the pollution of the oceans, 'says Heike Vester, who deals with this special issue on behalf of the German World Wildlife Fund.

The Mediterranean, almost entirely surrounded by densely populated banks, threatens to become a gigantic receptacle of plastic. Turkey and Spain are the main culprits, but Italy, Egypt and France continue to fill the sea. The waste that washes up on the beaches consists of 95% plastic. A failing waste treatment in the surrounding countries and illegal dumping in the rivers are the main causes.

'Europe must drastically improve the structure of waste separation, processing and recycling', Vesper states. Tourists can contribute a lot with the adjustment of their behavior. 150 million people live around the Mediterranean Sea. Every year 320 million vacationers join. They are estimated to be responsible for a thickening of the plastic soup by 40 percent. Dozens of species of fish, seabirds, turtles and dolphins threaten to suffocate.

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