Litter-free is the way to be – Actions for a healthy Mediterranean
A thriving nature – with healthy marine and terrestrial ecosystems – underpins human well-being. However, todays’ unsustainable patterns of production and consumption are accelerating a triple planetary crisis: biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution. Marine litter – particularly marine plastic pollution – is one of the most visible symptoms of this crisis. It has far-reaching environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural consequences, disrupting coastal and marine ecosystems and the services they provide, and ultimately impacting people’s livelihoods and well-being. Potential risks to human health are yet to be fully understood. Importantly, marine plastic pollution is not only an ocean issue; it also contributes to climate change and air pollution, as plastics – undeniably indispensable in todays’ societies – release greenhouse gas emissions throughout their entire life cycle: from fossil-fuel-based production and refining.
November 2025
