53 tons of waste collected from Marmara Sea

ISTANBUL

Some 53 tons of waste have been collected in nine months within the scope of a project initiated to carry out awareness training on marine cleaning in the Marmara Sea.

According to the report, between September 2021 and June 2022, 52.5 tons of waste, equivalent to the daily waste generated by approximately 46,000 people, were collected and recycled.

One-third of the waste collected consists of plastic waste such as bags and bottles. As part of the clean-up, 4.8 tons of clothing and textile materials, 4.4 tons of metal and 4 tons of fishing waste were collected from the sea, while 11 tons were sea saliva and other wastes.

On the other hand, with the online training held at the secondary school level as part of the project, the awareness of the seas as a source of oxygen among students increased from 68.5 percent to 99 percent.

Meanwhile, ships dumping waste illegally in the Bosphorus Strait were fined 36.7 million Turkish Liras ($2.03 million) by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality this year.

With the efforts to protect the seas, an average of 200,000 cubic meters of oil, waste, sewage, garbage and flue gas filtration wastes are collected annually from ships that use the strait as a transit passage or dock at the port.

Wastes are collected into separate bins according to their types, said Fatih Hoşoğlu, an official from the municipality.

Pointing out that 1 liter of waste oil will pollute million cubic meters of water, professor Ayşen Erdinçler, the head of the municipality’s environmental protection and control directorate, stated these wastes not only cause pollution but also pose potential risks to the ecosystem.