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June 16, 2020 "The plastic emergency affects all the waters of the planet, but the Mediterranean has a fundamental difference: being a closed sea, currents return 80% of plastic waste to the coasts. Result: for every kilometer of coastline , they accumulate over 5 kilograms a day. " The picture is from the WWF.

Europe and the Mediterranean
Europe - he explains - is the world's second largest plastic producer. Proof that plastic, in many cases, is not disposed of properly or effectively. Every year 570 thousand tons of plastic end up in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. To give an idea of ​​what is discharged into the sea, 4.7 billion disposable plastic cutlery that floats every day must be imagined. 3,600 per second.

Where it comes from
Coastal activities - explains the WWF - are responsible for half of the plastic that flows into the Mediterranean Sea, while 30% is transported from the land by rivers. The rest comes from marine activities.

Worldwide pollution
From the Mariana trench to Everest, to the glaciers of the poles, more or less large fragments of plastic have been found practically everywhere, even in plankton, crustaceans, molluscs, fish and marine mammals. Plastics and microplastics

data
represent 70% to 90% of waste at sea. According to the most recent estimates, today there are over 150 million tons of plastic in the oceans of the planet: every year we pour over 8 million.

The United Nations: more plastic than fish
According to UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program, 15% of waste floats on the surface, another 15% remains almost halfway and 70% settles on the seabed. Without a rapid and effective paradigm shift by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish by weight.

Emergency
In 2018, UNEP included the problem of plastic in the oceans among the 6 most serious environmental emergencies, with climate change, ocean acidification and loss of biodiversity.