Reducing Plastic Pollution at The Mediterranean Sea

The cradle of civilization and the backbone of environmental heritage, the Mediterranean Sea that has a long history is now reported to be the sea with the highest level of plastic pollution all over the world. It is quite a concern that plastics account for almost 95 percent of the waste in the open sea, on the beaches and on the seabed. Most of the pollution has been reported to come from Egypt, France and Italy. Europe contributes to 150,000-500,000 tonnes of macroplastics and approximately 70,000-130,000 tonnes of microplastics annually with the plastic posing a huge threat to marine life (Cózar et al. 2015, p. 4). The plastics often injure the animals, of in other cases suffice and kill them after a while with endangered species such as Turtles also not being spared by the pollution. The criticality of the problem has since necessitated the need to institute policies that will further limit the increase of pollution in the Mediterranean. It is worth outlining that the measures should be implemented at the European level because Europe has been identified as the second largest plastics producer in the world, only after China. The attention should be directed at the microplastics because they are small and have been reported to hit record levels. The primary focus of the approaches that can be implemented at the European level involves factoring that it is a global problem that should be addressed by limiting the excessive consumption and lack of proper management. Even though this solution can be realized, it will mean that there is massive commitment and collaboration by all the stakeholders. It thus follows that the government, businesses, and individual entities all need to work towards a common goal.

The approach at the European should most importantly focus on instituting a legally agreeable policy that will be implemented to reduce the discharge of plastics in the sea. It is imperative that all the nations that are involved focus on this objective because the success will depend on the approach that will be used to ensure that it is implemented.  The necessity of addressing the plastic discharge issues is because it is estimated that 90 percent of the seabird have been found to have fragments of plastics. Meanwhile, by 1960, only 5 percent of the seabirds were reported to have plastics in their system. Nevertheless, it is expected that the compliance to the policy in the long-term might be a challenge because the tendency to discharge plastics into the ocean has been a problem for a long time. It is expected that by 2050, the number of plastics is likely to rise to about 99 percent unless action is taken in advance to address the problem (Deudero and Alomar 2015, p. 58). Thus, there should be a strong resource background and financial mechanism that is implemented alongside to support the enactment to avoid the possibility further increase in plastic in the sea creatures’ bodies.

An alternative approach that can be implemented at the international and European level will involve instituting a zero-tolerance vision to eliminate the problem completely. It is undoubted that the problem often starts from the local towards the industrial stage. The success of the zero-tolerance framework will be dependent on the success of European nations in getting all the stakeholders on board to address the problem in a timely manner. A zero-tolerance initiative will require that even if the efforts are instituted at the European level, there should be a backing in the national, local and industrial levels because these elements constitute the greater Europe (Liubartseva et al. 2018, p. 151). For example, reports indicate that marine litter accounts for an estimated € 61.7 million loss in fishing because of the reduction in the catch and destruction of the vessels. The common focus for the zero vision for plastics will also mean that tourists will be encouraged to visit the scenic sites and thus create more revenue.

It is also suggested that as an approach intended at the European level, the action could be on ensuring that all the ghost living gear is recovered from the Mediterranean Sea and disposed of appropriately. The dumping of ghost gear is a huge challenge because abandoning such devices only adds to the overall prevalence of the problem and further risk to the biosphere and marine life (Cámara-, Mor and Suzuki 2015, p. 12). An estimated 700 marine species are threatened by the plastic gear and they account for 65 percent entrapments in the Mediterranean Sea. There is need for aggression in the implementation of this objective because the producers should be held accountable for the pollution from the fishing gear containing plastics. Such producers could be required to cater for the retrieval and support in terms of financial investment to deliver the ghost fishing gear.

An alternative approach that can be used to reduce the production and pollution of plastics to safeguard the Mediterranean Sea would by ensuring that the international trade regulations are adopted. A key approach that could be considered would be the recycling of waste products as it has been proven to be an effective intervention in many other settings. The recycling criteria could involve ensuring that the exporters of plastics have a proper recycling criterion especially in areas that are adversely affected by high pollution. Recycling would be appropriate because out of the 27 million tonnes of plastic waste that is produced annually in Europe, only a third is recycled. Meanwhile, the recycled plastics account for 6 percent of plastic demand across Europe. It thus underscores the need to improve  on the recycling efforts to address the rampant disposal of plastic as waste.

The efforts to reduce the pollution at the sea could also be designed such that there is a change of focus on the recycling to ensure that there is more commitment. Currently, most of the nations within the European complex have focused on recycling about 30 percent of the plastic waste which may not be a much effective approach for the long term. If at all the problem of plastics being deposited in the water bodies and particularly the Mediterranean Sea will have to be solved, then it will be paramount that the target within the European context be 100 percent by 2030 (Cámara-, Mor and Suzuki 2015, p. 1). The Scientific Association for the Promotion of Rational Environmental Policy should be focused on ensuring that all the nations that are involved in the problem target to meet the set objective for recycled material in the next five years. Furthermore, there should be an institution of policies where separate collection targets are established for the appropriate extended producer responsibility frameworks (Deudero and Alomar, 2015 p. 65). Such an approach could involve lowering of recyclable packaging for the use of recycled plastics or in other cases, as deposit funds. Such interventions would propel the recycling of waste that is often considered as waste and hence contribute greatly to the lowering of the pollution.

The stakeholders should also focus on ensuring that the single -use plastic bags are eliminated completely in nations that have been adversely involved int the pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. The European complex involved in the action against plastics should be involved in the development of a roadmap that will help in the reduction of waste products and most importantly plastic use (Deudero and Alomar 2015, p, 67). For example, Spain people consume 10 percent of the plastics which translates to about 3.84 million tonnes every year. Meanwhile every 32 million plastic bottles are used in Italy. Such critical figures necessitate the need to instituting new bans on other single-use alternatives for which there are alternatives. Furthermore, as opposed to the alternative that are used based on a single-use principle, there should be more focus on the incentives such as tax exemptions so that companies that are involved in the evasions are made to account for the same. The approach will ensure that there is more commitment by such institutions on the reduction of waste products. A workable approach would be banning the single use of microplastics for most of the consumer goods that have been widely associated with the pollution of the Mediterranean Sea including detergent, cosmetics and other related products. Instead, the European stakeholders should be involved in the introduction of technical products and non-degradable plastics should also be banned completely especially when they are released into the waters and cannot be recovered hence adding to the problem.

The European complex should also focus on motivating the nations involved to engage actively in the safe production processes to enable the realization of absolute waste management collection there should be a proper waste collection in place targeted at addressing the pollution menace by focusing on all the waste productions that are often dumped on the water bodies (Cózar et al. 2015, p. 4). While pollution from plastics is undoubtedly the greatest challenge that the Scientific Association for the Promotion of Rational Environmental Policy should be focused, there needs to be a broader perspective on the problem of waste collection. The tendency for nations to engage in pollution arises when there is rampant pollution caused by other products and not necessarily limited to plastics. It follows that items such as metal, paper, organic products and anything that creates a sight of pollution should be targeted and proper waste collection initiatives instituted. The focus in such an initiative will be on ensuring that there is a culture of proper waste management that resonates with all the countries within the European framework so that everyone develops a culture of clean and green environment. The success of such an initiative will, however, require that there is massive investment to promote a more systemic and sustainable approach to waste management. The proper infrastructure should also be instituted to enable the realization of absolute waste collection so that there is no element of plastic or other waste in the water bodies and especially on the Mediterranean Sea that has been adversely affected.

The European approach to addressing the problem of plastics should also be focused on the actions that can be aligned at the industrial stage. Industries that are fond of the pollution should be guided in the mechanisms that can be used in the redesigning of infrastructure in the production processes and the supply chains to promote sustainable production activities. An example of such an initiative would be encouraging the use of recycling methods at the industrial level to avoid demoting of waste products by the industries. It is reported that industries in Europe account for 3,500 million plastic drink bottles and 1,500 million plastic coffee cups . The industrial sector could as well be the focus on the European level because the manufacturers of plastics could also be supported on the proper production techniques that would allow for a change from plastics to other degradable alternatives. The concept of producing the small plastics and packaging options is a huge challenge that would have to be addressed using proper mechanisms in place (Komar and Lalić, 2015, p. 45). Instead, the industries in the adversely affected nations could be encouraged to engage in multi-material packing options so that they adopt other solutions that are already in use and are environmental-friendly.

In summing up the scientific assessment, it is worth underlining that the needs for European level focus on the problem of plastics on the Mediterranean Sea is focused on the fact that the Mediterranean Sea is adversely affected. The measures to effectively limit the pollution should thus be aimed at instituting a legally agreeable policy for the nations involved. A zero-tolerance policy would also be an effective approach to ensure that there is absolute elimination of dumping of wastes and plastics. The ghost living gear that have long been dumped on the water bodies should also be collected and properly disposed. The international trade regulations should also be adopted to ensure that recycling is made the priority of the production processes. It would also be appropriate if the single-use pf plastics are eliminated completely and better alternatives instituted. Lastly, the industrial sector in the affected nations should focus on addressing the pollution at the industrial stage to limit the production of plastic products that contribute to the problem. Nevertheless, it is imperative that there is massive investment and follow-up to ensure that there is maximum adherence to the plans.