Italian fishermen now have the right to bring back litter they find in their nets on the mainland. So far, in almost all cases, they had to put them back in the water - a scourge when you know that most of the waste in the seas and oceans is plastic.
In the Adriatic, 5 kilometers from the Italian coast, Carlo Governatori, a fisherman, finds in his net, among the fish and crabs, several waste and plastic bottles, fished at 15 meters depth.
Each day, it is thus between 10 and 20 kg of plastic waste that Carlo Governatori fishing.
Italy, third biggest polluter in the Mediterranean
Only a few weeks ago, bringing these garbage to land was illegal. Fishermen could then be charged with illegal transport. "We were outlaws, we could have a PV," says Carlo Governatori.
This year, things are changing. During the summer, 40 trawlers are allowed to bring the waste back for recycling.
With its 7,600 km of coastline, Italy is particularly vulnerable to pollution at sea.
Each year, 600,000 tonnes of plastic are dumped in the Mediterranean Sea, making it one of the most polluted seas in the world.
Currently, the Italian authorities are working on a bill to encourage fishermen to collect this waste by paying them premiums.
For associations that clean beaches, there is urgency. "This is a serious problem for biodiversity," says a member of the Italian environmental association Legambiente. "Fish die while eating plastic, they confuse it with what they usually eat, like jellyfish."
In Sardinia, 22 kilos of waste were found in the belly of a sperm whale in early April. The Italian Minister of the Environment then said he made the fight against plastic his priority.
Italy would be the third biggest polluter in the Mediterranean, behind Egypt and Turkey. With its 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste produced in this semi-enclosed sea, France is no exception.