180,000 tons of marine debris cleaned: Ministry

ISTANBUL

Approximately 180,000 tons of waste has been collected from seas so far in the works carried out within the scope of marine litter provincial action plans, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry has announced.

Remanding that the circular on the preparation and implementation of provincial action plans on marine litter was published on June 10, 2019, the ministry noted that provincial action plans were created in 28 coastal provinces, covering a five-year period.

With the implementation of the circular, measures were taken against the formation of marine garbage and studies were carried out to clean up existing marine litter, the ministry pointed out.

The ministry underlined that 135,000 tons of waste out of a total of 180,000 waste collected in the cleaning works carried out on the sea surfaces, seabeds and coasts of the entire country were plastic waste.

Two skimmers were deployed in the southwestern province of Muğla’s Marmaris and Fethiye districts’ bays in order to support the works carried out on keeping the seas constantly clean.

The skimmers, which started to be used in July, made a great contribution to the cleaning works by collecting 13, 121 kilograms of marine litter from the seas so far, the ministry explained.

Governors of provinces where cleaning works are implemented must submit an activity report regarding the information about the works carried out in their provinces to the ministry every year, the ministry stated.

“The effectiveness of the activities and measures carried out in the province is being closely monitored,” the ministry added in its statement.

The ministry also said that the “Zero Waste Blue Movement,” which was initiated by presidential instructions, was carried out within the scope of efforts to raise public awareness about sea cleanliness.