Less than 20 marine litter per 100 linear meters of coastline to consider a beach in good environmental condition. It is the threshold value established at European level, and recently published by the EU Commission, to define a clean beach. An ambitious goal in particular for Euro-Mediterranean countries where the concentrations of beached waste are markedly higher than those of other European seas: Mediterranean 274 objects / 100 m; Baltic Sea 40 objects / 100 m; Black Sea: 104 objects / 100 m. In Italy, the median values in the three sub-regions are 559 objects / 100m in the Adriatic Sea, 421 objects / 100m in the western Mediterranean and 271 objects / 100m in the Ionian and central Mediterranean. To establish the threshold value, the experts analyzed the first set of data available at European level on the waste found along the beaches of the continent, referring to the period 2015-2016 and deriving from national monitoring programs carried out following shared methodologies. During the reference period, all over Europe, 3069 surveys from 331 different beaches were carried out. In Italy the beaches monitored in the period under review were 64. The monitoring is carried out by the Regional Agencies for the Protection of the Environment and is financed by the Ministry of the Environment and the Protection of the Territory and the Sea (MATTM). The data thus collected, processed by Ispra and shared with the other European countries, were used to define the threshold value within the Community technical group on marine litter in which Ispra experts participate. The value of 20 litter per 100 m of beach length corresponds to the 15 / o percentile of the EU data set and is a "sufficiently precautionary value, as well as a difficult goal, but not impossible to achieve with the adoption of measures substantial and prolonged ", underlines Ispra. And having established a European threshold value for clean beaches, the experts explain, represents an important step as it opens the way for the definition of other target groups such as that on seabed waste, microplastics and the impact of waste on marine organisms.
Clean beaches, only those with less than 20 waste per 100 meters
2020-09-28T15:14:56.803Z
Less than 20 marine litter per 100 linear meters of coastline to consider a beach in good environmental condition. It is the threshold value established at European level, and recently published by the EU Commission, to define a clean beach. (HANDLE)