3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
[MIS17-P08] Scattered abandoned waste from the city to the sea
Keywords:Quantification, Macroplastics, Urban litters, OSPAR
Current research results have shown that the Mediterranean Sea is the world's most microplastic-polluted sea, and recent works of Sorbonne University (Oceanological Observatory of Banyuls-sur-Mer, France) have highlighted the significant contribution of rivers to sea plastic-pollution.
Although standardized methods, such as the OSPAR protocol, to quantify plastic litters along riverbanks and beaches are used by researchers for two decades in Europe, their implementation remains limited in space and time. Therefore, we promote them to become common practice during participatory science operations to identify the pollution origins and quantify the pollution fluxes from cities to the oceans, as they remain mostly unknown.
In 2022, in the framework of the CITEO call for expression of interest of the seaside city of Banyuls-sur-Mer, for the first time a protocol OSPAR was adapted to the streets of Banyuls-sur-Mer to identify and estimate the city pollution by scattered abandoned waste potentially originated from the tourism, wine-growing activities, the port area, hunting and fishing activities and the local population.
This initial diagnostic allowed to identify the most appropriate preventive and curative actions to be implemented by the local decision makers. The final aim is to reduce the presence of scattered abandoned waste in the environment (-60% in one year). A regular monitoring of this pollution over time will allow quantifying the impact and effectiveness of these actions as well as the effects of extreme events such as floods, storms, or occasional festivities.
Although standardized methods, such as the OSPAR protocol, to quantify plastic litters along riverbanks and beaches are used by researchers for two decades in Europe, their implementation remains limited in space and time. Therefore, we promote them to become common practice during participatory science operations to identify the pollution origins and quantify the pollution fluxes from cities to the oceans, as they remain mostly unknown.
In 2022, in the framework of the CITEO call for expression of interest of the seaside city of Banyuls-sur-Mer, for the first time a protocol OSPAR was adapted to the streets of Banyuls-sur-Mer to identify and estimate the city pollution by scattered abandoned waste potentially originated from the tourism, wine-growing activities, the port area, hunting and fishing activities and the local population.
This initial diagnostic allowed to identify the most appropriate preventive and curative actions to be implemented by the local decision makers. The final aim is to reduce the presence of scattered abandoned waste in the environment (-60% in one year). A regular monitoring of this pollution over time will allow quantifying the impact and effectiveness of these actions as well as the effects of extreme events such as floods, storms, or occasional festivities.